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Photo by Chickering 



GLEASON L. ARCHER 



Building a School 



A Fearless Portrayal of Men and Events in the 
Old Bay State, 1906- 19 19 



By 

GLEASON L. ARCHER, LL. B. 

Dean and Founder of Suffolk Law School 



Author of "The Law of Contracts," "The Law of Agency," 

"The Law of Torts," "Equity and Trusts," "The Law 

of Evidence," "Law Office and Ctourt Procedure," etc. 



Boston: igig 



'V1 



Copyright 1915, 1919 

By 

GLEASON L. ARCHER 

All rights reserved 



JAin -u iiJ2U 



©GI,A5Gia43 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



To My Wife 

ELIZABETH GLENN ARCHER 

Whose loyal co-operation and tender sympathy have made 

possible the successful termination of the long 

struggle depicted in this volume. 



FOREWORD 



The success of the first edition of this work which 
appeared under the title of the "Educational Octopus" 
has encouraged the author to complete the history of 
Suffolk Law School by bringing it up to date. In 
the former volume, the narrative virtually ended with 
the signing of the school charter. Not unlike the 
signing of a treaty of peace, this ended hostilities. 
The institution was thereafter freed from the neces- 
sity of defense against the assaults of rival institu- 
tions. A period of unparalleled growth was ushered 
in, and with it problems greater than ever the school 
had faced in its earlier days. How those problems 
were faced; how a school home was purchased; how 
an annex was built; how the crisis of the world war 
was met, and the wonderful influx of students of the 
current year, are all set forth in the concluding chap- 
ters of this volume. 

— G. L. A. 

45 Mt. Vernon St., Boston 
October, 1919 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Chapter 

I. The Proximate Cause. 

II. A Momentous Decision. 

III. Enrolling My First Students. 

IV. My First Law Lecture. 
V. Tribulations. 

VI. A Barrier Cleared. 

VII. Preparation for Bar Examinations. 

VIII. The Last Barrier. 

IX. I Prepare to Found the School. 

X. The Humble Beginning. 

XI. The School's First Year. 

XII. A Conference with My Students. 

XIII. A Crisis in the School. 

XIV. The Fateful Summer of 1907. 
XV. A Student Mutiny. 

XVI. School Finances, Real and Apparent. 

XVII. The School Wins Friends and Free Advertising. 

XVIII. Assailed by Suffragettes. 

XIX. The First Lawyer from Our School. 

XX. The Good Samaritan. 

XXI. A Great Boom for the School. 

XXII. My First Law Writing and the Traveler Contest. 

XXIII. Hostility of Boston University. 

XXIV. Removal to Tremont Temple. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Qiapter 

XXV. Y. M. C. A. Ethics. 

XXVI. My First Law Book. 

XXVII. A Year of Tribulations. 

XXVIII. A Student Revolt. 

XXIX. My Second Law Book. 

XXX. Low Water Mark 

XXXI. The Resurrection of Hope. 

XXXII. An Attempted Consolidation. 

XXXin. The Winter of 191 1. 

XXXIV. A New Lease of Life. 

XXXV. The School Votes to Petition the Legislature. 

XXXVI. Strengthening the Line-up. 

XXXVII. Enter Joe Parks. 

XXXVIII. The Legislative Contest Opens. 

XXXIX. The Octopus Shows Its Head. 

XL. Victory in Committee. 

XLI. The First Great Debate in the House. 

XLII. Lively Lobbying. 

XLIII. A Double Shuffle. 

XLIV. Victory in the Senate. 

XLV. The Bill Goes to Governor Foss. 

XLVI. Veto and Defeat. 

XLVII. Preparing for the Second Legislative Contest. 

XL VIII. The Bar Association Investigation. 

XLIX. The Board of Education's "Investigation." 

L. Before the Committee on Education, 1913. 

LI. The Bill Passes the Legislature. 

LII. The "Pleasant Easter" Episode. 

LIII. "Pitiless Publicity." 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Chapter 

LIV. A Jolt for the Joker. 

LV. The Governor at Bay. 

LVI. Exit Governor Foss. 

LVII. The Great Victory. 

LVIII. The School goes House Hunting. 

LIX. Buying a School House. 

LX. The School Year of 1914-1915. 

LXI. Building the Annex. 

LXII. A Year of Momentous Problems. 

LXni. The Banner Year of 1916-1917. 

LXIV. Suffolk Law School and the World War. 

LXV. Conclusion. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Proximate Cause. 

The writing of this chronicle of a school for the train- 
ing of the sons of the working man, and how it encoun- 
tered the Educational Octopus that controls all things 
educational in Massachusetts, has rendered necessary 
the projection of the personality of the author to a 
greater degree than would he called forth by the ordi- 
nary history. As in the case of the historian of ancient 
days, I am describing events "all of which I saw and a 
part of which I was," for as founder and Dean of the 
school the brunt of things necessarily devolved upon me 

Could all the intimate history of the Suffolk Law 
School from its very inception to the present moment, 
its humble beginning, its long and labored struggle up- 
ward in the face of powerful opposition, and its final 
triumph, be fairly set forth that all may read, the nar- 
rative would prove to be one of surpassing interest. 
Ten years is a short time in the eyes of men when it is 
looked back upon, and perhaps altogether too brief to 
allow a proper appraisement of all the varying in- 
cidents that go to make up that interval of history. 

There is no fact of life more apparent to man than 
the wonderful way in which a trifling incident of every 
day life sometimes marks the turning point of one's 
whole existence. Yet at the time it occurred it was 
merely a trifling incident of no more apparent im- 

II 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

portance than any other that preceded or succeeded it, 
and had we not taken advantage of the opportunity 
thus afforded we doubtless would never have realized 
that it possessed the slightest significance to our lives. 
But looking back through the vista of time, its true 
significance stands revealed and we know the happen- 
ing to have been the point of departure from the direc- 
tion in which our lives had hitherto been moving. 

For this reason, perhaps, the incident, trifling though 
it may seem, that brought about the eventual founding 
of the Suffolk Law School stands forth in my memory 
as one of the most vivid of my life. Should I live ever 
so long I can never forget that scene in Room 826 of 
the Old South Building, Boston. 

It occurred sometime in the early part of October in 
the year 1905. I was then beginning my second year 
at Boston University Law School, but hoping to grad- 
uate a year ahead of my class (which, by the way, I 
accomplished), I was taking the subjects of Real 
Property, Equity, Bills and Notes, Corporations, Evi- 
dence, Wills, Pleading and Practice, not to mention a 
few other subjects, and, naturally, I expected to be 
busy both day and evening. 

It will be granted, therefore, by anyone who has 
studied the difficult subjects that I have enumerated, 
that, to use the language of the street, I was "some 
busy." 

On this particular afternoon in the Autumn of 1905 
I was seated at a roll top desk by the window in Room 
826 of the Old South Building studying my lecture 
notes, (I used to study there quite a bit while keep- 
ing the office open), when Hugh A. Quinn of Woburn, 
the owner of the aforesaid roll top desk, entered the 
office. 

12 




THE PROXIMATE CAUSE 

He was and is a young man of keen intellect, and we 
had often conversed on various legal topics. When- 
ever anything came under his observation that in- 
volved a point of law, he usually asked me about it, 
an<i, like all law students, I was glad indeed to air — 
I was about to say, my knowledge, but will substitute 
the word "understanding" of the law that governed it. 

On this afternoon, we got into a discussion of the 
law of "Contracts," and it may be that my explanation 
seemed to him particularly lucid, for as a result of it 
he said to me : 

"Mr. Archer, I wish I could study law. I've always 
had a hankering for law. Why can't you teach me? 
I'd be glad to pay you for it, and I know a young fel- 
low that I think would like to study with me." 

To say that I was amazed at the proposition was to 
put it mildly. It seemed that I had already more work 
before me than I could ever hope to accomplish during 
the school year. So I tried to evade the issue by sug- 
gesting that he go to the Y. M. C. A. Law School if he 
couldn't get time for study during the day. 

"No," he replied, "I have investigated that and I 
know that I can't stand the strain, for I am working 
too hard. One or two evenings a week would be all 
that I could stand." 

I pondered over it. I explained to him the great 
amount of work that I was undertaking — and I turned 
him down. 

But, it may be objected : "How can this be the in- 
ception of the Suffolk Law School?" It was, never- 
theless. Although I did not grasp opportunity by the 
forelock when it met me, yet I did catch it by the fet- 
lock before it got away. 

13 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER II. 

A Momentous Decision. 

It was my custom while a student in Boston to 
study very diligently, taking little of the relaxation or 
recreation that most young men think, and perhaps 
rightly, to be necessary to their physical well being. I 
never frequented places of amusement nor even gym- 
nasiums, and my chief and practically my only recrea- 
tion was in walking for brief periods whenever my 
eyes or brain imperatively demanded rest. 

My walking was almost invariably through the Com- 
mon or Public Gardens, occasionally down the central 
park of Commonwealth Avenue, but a favorite course 
was down Beacon Street to a point opposite the Pub- 
lic Gardens and thence to the Charles River bank, then 
quite difiFerent from its present magnificent prome- 
nade. 

On the evening after my interview with Mr. Quinn, 
I returned to my room on Beacon Hill, but either sup- 
per or mental weariness, or both combined, prevented 
me from pursuing my studies with any degree of sat- 
isfaction. I could not clearly see when a "fixture" was 
a part of the real estate or when it was not, and in 
order to remedy this mental astigmatism, I gave over 
studying for a time and set out for a walk. 

I roomed on Myrtle Street at the time aod, if I re- 
member correctly, I walked up Joy Street and turned 

14 



A MOMENTOUS DECISION. 

down Mount Vernon because of a beautiful sunset 
glow in the West that appeared to special advantage 
through the vista of trees of that beautiful street. 
Quite unconscious of the destiny that should link me 
with the place, I passed 45 Mount Vernon Street, the 
present home of the Suffolk Law School. 

If some fairy could have bid me pause and behold 
the place and whispered in my ear something that the 
future would unfold, I should have regarded the 
building with wonder and delight, but as it was, I 
looked upon it merely as one of many of the homes of 
the "highbrows," cold and forbidding. 

What had I, a poor student without a dollar to my 
name, to do with one of the finest old buildings in the 
exclusive section of residential Boston? So I passed 
on to Louisburg Square and finally turned through 
some of the winding cross streets until I gained 
Beacon Street. 

I strolled for some time in the brisk evening air. I 
have no clear recollection of when my thoughts first 
turned to the incident of the afternoon, but turn to it 
they did, and before I had retraced my way to my 
lodgings I was so completely dominated by the 
thought of teaching law that, absurd as I told myself 
it was, I could not refrain from mentioning it to my 
brother, Hiram J. Archer, who roomed with me. 

My brother was also studying law, but not at that 
time in law school. He had recently undergone a long 
tubercular illness that had so completely shattered his 
health that even to this day he is not a well man. But 
he was rooming with me and studying law, in fact, he 
may be termed my first pupil, for it was largely from 
my lecture notes and my occasional assistance that he 



15 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

so far mastered the law that he passed the Massachu- 
setts bar examination six months after I did. 

He was older than I, and I had great respect for 
his judgment. I wonder even now what would have 
been the fate of the Suffolk Law School if he had dis- 
couraged my project while I was yet uncertain as to 
the course I should pursue. He understood as well as 
I did the great amount of work I had mapped out for 
the year, but he caught the idea instantly and approved 
of it most heartily. 

By this time I had evolved the plan of trying to in- 
duce other young men to come into the class and thus 
make it more feasible from every point of view. It 
afterward transpired that had I not secured others, my 
class would have ended abruptly within a few weeks 
of its formation, but a kindly Providence seems to 
have directed my every move. 

I remembered a young man of my acquaintance who 
had remarked in my hearing some months before that 
he wished he could study law. He worked in Boston 
and the plan might appeal to him. At any rate it 
would do no harm to try. 

In casting about for others who might be interested 
in the plan, I bethought me of a second cousin of 
mine, Carl Collar, an ambitious young man whom I 
had tried to persuade to go to Boston University Col- 
lege of Liberal Arts the year before, but who had se- 
cured a responsible position with a steamship company 
in Boston and had given up the idea of college. Know- 
ing him as I did, I had confidence that the plan would 
appeal to him, and I resolved to see him the next day. 

Ponder as we did upon it, my brother and I could 
not recall an}^ other men who were likely prospects. 



t6 



n 



A MOMENTOUS DECISION 

No way of securing other men remained except re- 
sorting to outright advertising, which I finally decided 
to do. 

I did very little studying the balance of the evening 
and spent a wakeful night as I always do when any 
immature plan is on my mind. It may be a common 
experience of men who do much thinking or planning, 
but with me until a problem is thoroughly worked 
out, I can never count upon a night's sleep. However 
weary I may be when I go to bed and however 
soundly I may sleep at first, I am sure to awaken in 
the "wee small" hours and lie awake until the problem 
is settled or until morning comes. 

But settling the problem does not finish my mid- 
night cogitations, for I always find myself revolving 
the plan again and picking flaws in it, and looking at it 
from all angles until I have settled the problem in a 
different way. More often than not the second solu- 
tion is no more durable than the first. Many of the 
most successful features of the work in the Suffolk 
Law School and some of the wisest plans I have ever 
devised have not been the first solution but perhaps 
the sixth solution in a given night. 

For that reason I have always welcomed such peri- 
ods of insomnia for the fruits they have borne, and it 
is quite safe to say that no important plan that I have 
carried out in the last ten years has been entered upon 
without the tireless midnight scrutiny as outlined 
above. 

It is true that I had not the remotest idea at the time 
that the most profound consequences were to flowi 
from that night's work, but I nevertheless involuntar- 
ily devoted a large portion of the night to viewing and 
reviewing the plan, a little conscience-stricken perhaps 

17 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

at the occasional sleepy admonitions of my brother to 
"lie still and not keep a fellow awake all night." 

But when I arose the next morning it was with a 
fixed determination to go forward with the plan, what- 
ever the hazard, and however it might add to my bur- 
dens. 



i8 



ENROLLING MY FIRST STUDENTS 



CHAPTER III. 

Enrolling My First Students. 

It has ever been one of my characteristics to act 
without delay in putting into operation any plan upon 
which I have resolved, and my action in this matter 
was no exception to the rule. Early that very fore- 
noon I called upon Percival FitzGerald at the store 
in which he worked and informed him that I was 
about to start a private class in law. 

He was the young man to whom I have referred as 
having once in my hearing voiced a desire to study 
law. We discussed terms and evenings when the class 
would convene. Before I left he agreed to come into 
the class. 

This result was very cheering to me and I lost no 
time in going to the steamship office on State Street, 
where Carl Collar was employed. My enthusiasm pre- 
vailed with him also and I hastened to hunt up Mr. 
Quinn and acquaint him with my change of mind. 

He manifested considerable pleasure and promised 
to bring his friend to see me within a few days. The 
date for the first meeting of the class was fixed upon. 
When I attended my regular lectures at the law school 
that day it was with an entirely new interest in the 
methods of teaching of the different professors under 
whom I was studying. 

The problem of securing other students was the 
matter to which attention should next be directed and, 
after lectures that day, I drafted an advertisement an- 
nouncing the formation of a class in "practical law" 
for young business men, which read as follows : 

19 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Beginning Oct. 17, class in practical law for young 
business men. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. 
One hour each. "B 392," The Post. 

I received one or two inquiries within the next few 
days and each inquiry I answered in person. 

I well remember a trip to Union Park Street to fol- 
low up one of them. The man in question was a 
house painter and decorator, a thrifty Norwegian 
named Ole M. Dahl. I waited in his shop for half an 
hour or so, before he came in and I studied him with 
interest as he finally returned in his working garb. 
He had ruddy cheeks and a good natured face, alto- 
gether prepossessing except that his English was 
very faulty. 

"Can you learn me anything?" he finally demanded 
anxiously. "Ain't I too old?" 

I assured him that I knew many students in the 
law school who were older than he and that I be- 
lieved I could "learn" him something. As I remem- 
ber it, before I left him he agreed to attend and filled 
out one of the absurd little application blanks that I 
had just had printed, the first person outside of my 
acquaintance to become a member of the class.. 

I decided to take up "Contracts" as the first sub- 
ject, but there was a rule of the law school against 
using lecture notes, except personally, without the 
consent of the professor in whose course the notes 
were taken. I promptly waited upon the late Pro- 
fessor George E. Gardner, one of the wisest and ablest 
teachers under whom I had the good fortune to sit as 
a student, and easily obtained his permission to use 
the notes I had taken in his course in Contracts the 
previous year. 

I was now ready for the opening lecture and within 
ten days from the inception of the idea I had made 
my bow as a teacher of law. 

20 



MY FIRST LAW LECTURE 



CHAPTER IV. 

My First Law Lecture. 

Although I had announced the opening as October 
17th, yet, at the request of several of the men who 
were to attend, I changed the date to Thursday even- 
ing the 19th, and so altered my plans that the work 
should be given on one evening a week in a two-hour 
session instead of two sessions of an hour each on 
different evenings. 

When opening night came I arranged to have the 
use of Room 744 instead of Room 826, because of 
the greater seating capacity of the former. There 
were eight men present, one of them a visitor, who 
had no intention of studying law, but who roomed 
in the house that I did and came because of his in- 
terest in me. 

The seven men who had enrolled for the course 
were Carl Collar, Ole M. Dahl, Percival FitzGerald, 
Harry Golden, Benjamin W. Manning, Hugh A. 
Quinn and Thomas L. Talty. 

I have never confronted a Freshman Class with 
more trepidation than I did that first little assembly 
of men. Oratory has never been one of my gifts, nor 
do I deem it an essential quality in a teacher of law. 
Multiplicity of words oftentimes seriously interferes 
with a clear presentation of a legal principle. It has 
ever been my policy to plunge directly into a topic 

21 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

without elaborate preamble, and on this first occa- 
sion I am sure that I wasted no time in introducing 
the men to the law of contracts. My enthusiasm for 
the subject (in which I had won a Magna Cum Laude 
record the year before) soon made me forget my 
stage fright. 

Before the evening was over I was handling the 
lecture with real pleasure and feeling that at last in 
my teaching experience I had found my proper sphere. 
But I realized that it was only an experiment, and I 
wasted no thoughts on where it might lead me in 
the future, my whole attention being absorbed in 
rendering clear and vivid the principles that I had 
determined as work to be covered for that evening. 

The two hours passed swiftly and the men crowd- 
ed around me after the lecture, to express their grat- 
ification in the work of the evening or to pay their 
tuition or to ask me again for some word they had 
missed in the dictation. 

When they had all left me, I closed up the office 
and strolled to my lodgings, weary indeed, but glow- 
ing with satisfaction at the obvious success of the 
evening. I little realized then that not for three years 
would I derive a similar amount of satisfaction from 
the opening evening of a law course ; nor even that 
there were to be other opening evenings, and strenu- 
ous days to come. 

But I had made my bow as a teacher of law and 
definitely began the teaching experiments that finally 
led me to found the Suffolk Law School. I was then 
within ten days of my twenty-fifth birthday. 

The first lecture had furnished me with informa- 
tion as to how much dictation could be given in an 
evening, and during the week that intervened before 



22 



MY FIRST LAW LECTURE 

the next lecture I occupied my odd moments in cut- 
ting out certain portions of my Contracts notes and 
in supplying the gap in my own language. 

I have always had a faculty of compressing ideas 
into brief compass and of eliminating the unnecessary 
words in a sentence. This faculty proved of great 
value to me now, and I found to my great surprise 
and pleasure that I could condense the notes I had 
taken as a student into about one-fourth their original 
wording, still covering everything that they did and 
expressing each principle of law in language more 
readily understood by the beginner. 

A nicely balanced sentence of great length, or long 
winded legal phraseology may be well enough in dic- 
tation to day students who have all the time there 
is at their disposal, but the first thing I learned from 
my teaching of evening students, with little time for 
the lectures, was that it was entirely out of place in 
dictation to them. 

As I look back upon it now I believe that the suc- 
cess of the Suffolk Law School was largely due to 
that first year of experimentation while I was tutor- 
ing these men. Although as some of my classmates 
had informed me it was a very "nervy" thing to 
teach others while myself a student, yet my very 
position as a student and teacher gave me a tremen- 
dous advantage over the ordinary teacher of law. 

I was in a position to study from the student's 
standpoint the methods of many different teachers 
of varying capabilities and varying methods of work. 
Being of an analytical turn of mind, I studied the 
effect of different methods of teaching upon myself 
and classmates. I easily recognized the methods that 
produced good results, and also those that produced 

23 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

the opposite. Whenever I discovered a particular 
method in which the course I was myself taking was 
faulty, I set about deliberately to remedy that defect. 

For example, I had already found that I needed 
review work, of which we got none at all in Boston 
University Law School, and I had even the year be- 
fore gotten together a little circle of classmates for 
review work, I drawing up as we went along a com- 
plete set of quiz questions on each subject; which 
questions I propounded whenever we met, with the 
result that everyone in our little circle won honor 
marks in examinations. When devising m^ethods for 
teaching I therefore incorporated review work in class 
as of equal importance with advance work. 

There were many ways in which I profited greatly 
by my dual position as student and teacher, and be- 
fore the first year of teaching was over I had quite 
definitely mapped out the methods of teaching that 
have rendered the Suffolk Law School so different 
from other institutions, and so uniformly successful. 
They were devised to meet the needs of students by 
one who was himself a student at the time, and there- 
fore far better able to appreciate those needs than 
someone whose student days were already a thing of 
the past. 



24 



TRIBULATIONS 



CHAPTER V. 

Tribulations. 

There were many other lessons that I was to learn 
during the autamn of 1905, besides those to which I 
have alluded in the previous chapter. One was that 
the enthusiasm of men for new experiences, and espe- 
cially for those that involve mental exertion, is some- 
times of very uncertain duration. Within three weeks 
of the opening lecture I had lost two students. Man- 
ning and Golden; but it so happened that their places 
were immediately filled by two new men, J. J. Smith 
and A. J. Enman. 

Further losses, however, reduced the ranks of the 
little class. Singularly enough, Mr. Quinn, at whose 
suggestion the class had been formed, was the next 
to drop out, and with him his friend Talty. It was 
therefore a most fortunate circumstance that I had 
secured additional students beside Mr. Quinn and his 
friend, otherwise the experiment would have ended 
in failure within six weeks of its inception. 

But a misfortune of more serious nature befell me 
at this time, and very nearly ended my life. The 
combination of overwork, city air to one who had 
always lived in the country, and above all, improper 
food in quick lunch restaurants, had so weakened me 
physically that whenever I caught the slightest cold 
it developed into acute bronchitis. 

25 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

In November I was stricken with this malady, and 
was obliged to substitute my brother Hiram as 
teacher of my class. I grew steadily worse until my 
life was so far despaired of that they sent for my 
fiancee to come to Boston if she wished to see me 
alive. Needless to say, she came, and her visit and 
care aided materially in bringing me through the 
crisis, 

I recovered, after nearly a month of illness, and I 
wonder now how, in my weakened condition, I had 
the courage to attempt to make up all the work I had 
missed at the Law School, for it must be remembered 
that I was taking two years' work in one, and I had 
therefore lost the equivalent of two months' work. 

But kind classmates loaned me notebooks, and dur- 
ing the Thanksgiving holidays I visited at the home 
of my fiancee in Gilbertville, Mass., where her father 
(Rev. Henry S. Snyder) was then preaching. To- 
gether she and I copied the back notes, and I re- 
turned to Boston with renewed courage. 

But fate had not finished with me. There was 
an even more grievous trouble to befall me. As I 
sat in lecture at the law school on December 5th, 
1905, a telegram was placed in my hand, telling me 
that my mother, from whom I had just received a 
cheery letter, was dying in the far-off backwoods 
town in Maine, where I was bom. 

This day was but the second day that I had been 
able to attend the law school after my long illness, and 
my friends told me that it was suicide in my weak- 
ened condition to take the long trip through the bit- 
ter cold, but there was a voice calling me stronger 
than any voice of reason or prudence. 

I notified the students that I could not meet with 

26 



TRIBULATIONS 

them that Thursday evening, and my brother and I 
set out for home by the first train, telegraphing ahead 
to Bangor for a team that could stand a thirty-five 
mile dash into the country. 

We rode all night, reaching Bangor at two o'clock 
in the morning. The team was awaiting us, but we 
found before we had driven five miles into the bleak 
country that the horse was a decrepit creature, with- 
out speed or endurance. We got off the road in the 
darkness, but found it again and plodded on until 
mid-forenoon, when we met a man who knew our 
family, and had gotten word by telephone that very 
morning that mother was dead. 

We completed our sad journey, and after the 
funeral I returned to Boston and plunged into my 
work more desperately than ever. 



27 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER VI. 

A Barrier Cleared. 

One other man dropped out during- the winter term, 
leaving but four men in the class, and these four re- 
mained throughout the year. Two of them, Carl 
Collar and Ole M. Dahl, afterwards completed the 
course in the Suffolk Law School. 

It must have been about midwinter that I began 
definitely to consider the advisability and practica- 
bility of enlarging upon my venture and founding a 
regular evening law school. I had put my theories 
to the test, and the success of them was clearly man- 
ifest in the progress that my pupils were making in 
the difficult subject of Contracts. These theories of 
teaching were new and original in many respects, 
and this I felt justified me in continuing the venture. 

My brother was taken into consultation, and he 
agreed with me in my conclusion. I thereupon an- 
nounced to my pupils that I should continue the work 
the following year. 

But I realized that if I was to continue and attempt 
to found a regular school there were two very im- 
portant things for me to accomplish; the first to win 
my law degree in June, and the second to pass the 
Massachusetts Bar Examinations in July, 

To plan was to act, and as soon as the January ex- 

28 



A BARRIER CLEARED 

aminations had been heard from, I called upon Secretary 
J. Merrill Boyd and told him that I was a candidate for 
graduation. 

Now it was the usual thing for a man who was 
to take the three year course in two years to have 
taken Bills and Notes in addition to the Freshman 
work during the first year. This I had not done be- 
cause of the fact that I had had a great deal of trouble 
with my eyes while in college and had undergone two 
operations during the summer prior to entering the 
law school. I was therefore uncertain whether they 
would fail me or not, and had not dared to over-tax 
them by taking Bills and Notes in addition to the Fresh- 
man courses. 

There was a rule of the school which provided that 
no person could graduate in two years unless he had 
attained a ten per cent, higher average than was re- 
quired of the ordinary three-year student. Secretary 
Boyd, who was the kindest official I had ever come 
in contact with in the University, looked up my record 
and informed me that so far as my marks were con- 
cerned I was eligible, but that there was still another 
rule of the University that a man must be a college 
graduate in order to be entitled to take his law degree 
in two years. 

I clearly saw the dilemma I was in, for I had not 
completed my college course, owing in part to jfinancial 
circumstances and also to the serious eye trouble to 
which I have alluded. Mr. Boyd referred me to Dr. 
Melville M. Bigelow, who was then Dean of the Law 
School, as the only one who could give me a final 
answer. 

I lost no time in invading the Dean's office. Dr. 

29 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Bigelow was always a very kind and sympathetic man, 
and in this case I could clearly see that he would help 
me if he could. But I knew also that he saw the ob- 
stacle in the way of my graduation, so when he told 
me to continue with my work and he would see what 
could be done I feared that he was trying to be as 
humane as possible, but suspected that, carrying all 
the work that I was, it was inevitable that I should 
flunk something and that he would thus be delivered 
from the necessity of denying my plea to be allowed 
to graduate, for that would bar me automatically. 

I put the question more definitely. I assured him 
I was going to pass everything, calling his attention 
to the high marks I had gotten thus far in the school. 
I told him frankly why I wanted to graduate and ex- 
plained how much depended upon it. He was plainly 
troubled in his kind heart, but he told me that the 
rule stood in my way and that so far as he could then 
see I would have to wait a year for my degree. 

As I was passing out of the ofifiice he added that he 
would consider it further and help me out if he could. 

I was quite disheartened over the prospect, but it 
has always been a habit of mine never to give up until 
the last possibility has been exhausted. I passed a 
sleepless night racking my brain in an effort to devise 
some means of winning my degree. 

A resolve gradually shaped itself in my mind to en- 
list in my behalf the professors in both the college and 
law departments, who were friends of mine, and I felt 
that I could count upon several to urge my cause. 
However, I did not wish to resort to this except as a 
last extremity. 

Then I hit upon a happy idea. While still in col- 

30 



A BARRIER CLEARED 

lege, I had taken the subject of Sales in the Law 
School. I knew that Dean Bigelow delighted in fine 
and technical distinctions, so I resolved to argue my 
case afresh, having due regard to technical distinc- 
tions. 

I wrote him a long letter, urging that the two-year 
rule did not apply to me, for I had been enrolled in the 
law school more than two years. I further argued that 
I was neither a two-year man nor yet a three-year man, 
hence that the trustees had never provided a rule to 
fit my case. That being true, it was an occasion in 
which he was free to exercise his discretion. I recited 
again my reasons for desiring the degree in June, 1906, 
and ended by telling him that if he still felt doubtful 
over my case I would like the privilege of having some 
of my friends talk to him on the subject. 

But the letter accomplished all that I desired and I 
immediately received word from Dean Bigelow that I 
should have my degree, provided that I passed in all 
the second semester examinations. 

I was very happy over this decision ; but I realized 
that the battle was not entirely won, for a failure in 
examinations w^ould defeat my purpose. In addition to 
all that I was doing, there was a thesis to prepare, and 
this had to be based upon original research work. 

In the course of a few weeks I had written my 
thesis, when all my plans came near to being frus- 
trated by my old enemy bronchitis. My illness came 
about in this way. About the middle of April, IQ06, 
I was commissioned by the trustees of an estate in 
Boston to go to the southern part of Ohio and inves- 
tigate a tract of land owned by the estate, said to be 
in a productive gas and oil region, but concerning 

31 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

which they could obtain no trustworthy information. 

I made the trip, and a wonderful trip it was for me, 
never before having been out of New England. I se- 
cured the information and returned with samples of 
oil from adjoining properties. But pressure of time 
had made necessary explorations during a rainstorm 
which occurred while I was in Ohio, and I took a 
severe cold which resulted in the inevitable bronchitis. 

It was usually a matter of a few days before the 
malady reached its height, so I managed to take one or 
two senior special examinations immediately after my 
return from Ohio. I then succumbed to the inevitable 
and spent about two weeks in the Newton Hospital, 
where I had been very ill with bronchitis several times 
before. 

Some people have an idea that a bad cold in the 
chest is bronchitis, but acute bronchitis is a very dif- 
ferent thing. With me it usually began in the throati 
and spread and thickened until my bronchial tubes' 
were so congested that I breathed with great diffi- 
culty, developed a high fever and a brain-splitting 
headache, with an inability to take nourishment fori 
days at a time. ' 

This was the plague that fell upon me when I should 
have been preparing for or taking my senior special 
examinations. I suppose I might have been justified 
in feeling that I had been hopelessly beaten in my 
fight for my degree, but instead, as soon as I was able 
to sit up, I wrote to Dean Bigelow telling him of my 
predicament, and asking the privilege of taking, in the 
hospital, the examinations that I was missing. 

Promptly, from the Dean's office, came a very kind 
and sympathetic letter, assuring me that I would be 

32 



A BARRIER CLEARED 

allowed to make up all the examinations I had missed 
whenever I was able to leave the hospital. 

He was true to his word. I passed all my examina- 
tions. It was a proud and happy day for me when I 
received my degree on June 5th, 1906, with my brother 
and aunt and fiancee gracing the occasion. I had won 
the first of the two barriers that stood in the way of 
launching the school in September. There remained 
now only to pass the bar examinations. 



33 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER VII. 

Preparation for Bar Examinations. 

The balance of the month of June, 1906, was devoted 
to a variety of labors, but my chief occupation w^as 
that of reviewing my entire law school course, in 
preparation for the bar examinations. I also com- 
pleted the teaching of the subject of "Contracts," to 
my little class, giving them their final examinations 
June 2 1 St, 1906. 

It is interesting to note that the total tuition receipts 
for the year's work was $126.80, or an average of $4.09 
a week, certainly not such a sum as would have 
tempted any man to embark in the enterprise I was 
contemplating if financial considerations were the only 
inducement. 

The month of June was memorable for another 
reason — a salaried position in one of the finest law 
offices in Boston was secured for me by an influential 
friend. As I shall have occasion to mention the same 
gentleman at other stages of this history, it may be 
well to explain how it happened that he became in- 
terested in me. In order to do so I must take the 
reader back to a day in early August in the year 1903. 
I had been working during my vacation in a hotel on 
the south shore of Cape Cod as night clerk and watch- 
man. The wages had been trifling, $25. or so a month, 
but I was trying to earn money for college expenses 

34 



PREPARATION FOR BAR EXAMINATIONS 

and that seemed to be the only employment that I 
could obtain. 

But while about my duties in the hotel, storing away 
some boxes in the basement, I had tripped up in the 
darkness and been thrown to the rough cement floor, 
mashing very severely the ligaments of my left knee. 
For a time it appeared that the bones were fractured. 

After several days of agony during which, on 
crutches, I grimly stuck to my work, I was forced to 
leave for Boston, in the hope of getting into the Massa- 
chusetts General Hospital. It never rained harder 
than that morning when I took the stage-coach for the 
railroad station, but never did the guiding hand of 
Providence lead me more obviously than on this oc- 
casion. 

Half a mile from the hotel, the driver called at a 
cottage and took on another passenger, a prosperous- 
appearing middle-aged man, with one of the most 
genuinely sympathetic and noble countenances of any 
man I had ever met. 

It was George A. Frost, the manufacturer of the 
world celebrated "Boston Garter." I had never seen 
him before, and was in too great misery to regard him 
with any degree of interest. But my obvious suffering 
aroused his sympathy, and he questioned me concern- 
ing its cause. 

Such Avas the magnetism of the man, that before we 
had reached the railroad station I had told him much 
of my story, of the struggle I had made for an educa- 
tion and of my lifelong ambition to be a lawyer. 

I had read in fairy stories of wonderful good for- 
tunes that had befallen young men in times of mortal 
need, but never did I expect to see it enacted in my 



35 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

own life. My "fairy story" is too extensive and too 
wonderful to be told in this connection, but from the 
day of that chance meeting in the stagecoach to the 
day I graduated from the law school, George A. Frost 
stood sponsor for me financially, beginning his three 
years of assistance by sending me to a private hospital, 
furnishing a skillful surgeon, who saved me from life- J 
long lameness, and providing every comfort that could 
have been furnished by the most indulgent father. 

And ever thereafter it was not a question with him 
of how much I would ask for in the way of financial 
aid, but how much he could persuade me to accept, for 
I continued my frugal ways of living, even to the ex- 
tent of under-nourishment and resulting illness. 

What would have been my fate had I not met this 
man is difficult to conjecture, but it is safe to say that 
the Suffolk Law School would never have been found- 
ed, and, as will be seen later in this narrative, could 
never have survived in its early days had it not been 
for George A. Frost. 

But in June, 1906, he rendered another great serv- 
ice to me by securing for me a position with Carver 
& Blodgett, at 28 State Street, Boston ; dependent of 
course upon my passing the bar examinations. Mr. 
Frost had thus fulfilled the promise made to me in 
September, 1903, that if I proved myself worthy, he 
would see me through school and established in my 
profession. 

During the month of June also I was busy mapping 
out the next year's plans. I named the new venture 
"Archer's Evening Law School," and prepared an 
attractively printed four-page announcement. Under 
"Methods of Instruction" appeared this first announce- 

36 



PREPARATION FOR BAR EXAMINAITIONS 

ment of the basic principles upon which the school 
was founded. 

"The substance of every lecture is given in dictated 
notes, with citations of authorities. The important 
principles are re-emphasized at every succeeding lec- 
ture by thorough oral quizzes ; and by written prob- 
lems, assigned each time, the answers to be brought 
into the class in writing at the next succeeding lecture. 
This continual re-emphasizing of the maxims and prin- 
ciples already covered by the lectures enables even 
the busiest person to acquire a thorough grasp of the 
subject from the class room exercises alone." 

Students in the Suffolk Law School will realize that 
we have since added written quizzes in class and some 
other important practical features of work, but all 
will recognize this first announcement as a clear state- 
ment of the basal feature of the school work. 

Busy as I was, I must have felt that I still had 
leisure for other things, for I prepared a set of lecture 
notes on "Agency" to be used in the school the next 
fall, also a set of lecture notes on "Sales." It is inter- 
esting to note that the first course I prepared, 
"Agency," has continued to be used practically un- 
changed in form to this day, for when I ceased teaching 
the subject personally, I turned over my lecture notes 
to Mr. Douglas who has used them since. They will 
be succeeded in the coming year by my new text book 
on Agency, but no other course which I prepared that 
summer, except Criminal Law, has survived un- 
changed for so lengthy a period. 

The launching of the school now hinged upon my 
success in the bar examinations, as well as did my 
position with Carver & Blodgett. But there was an- 

37 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

other event in my life that also depended upon my , 
success, the supreme event in any man's life — mar- | 
riage. f 

For over three years I had been betrothed to Miss 
Elizabeth G. Snyder. We had resolved, at the time of 
my graduation from the Law School, that if I suc- 
ceeded in passing the bar examinations that summer 
we would marry in October. 

I was aware that the majority of men who took the 
bar examinations failed in the first attempt and often 
in the second also, but so much depended upon it that 
I had resolved to pass in the first attempt, with the re- 
sult to be seen in the next chapter. 



38 



THE LAST BARRIER 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Last Barrier. 

It was a very hot and sultry day when the large 
body of young men gathered in a High School building 
on West Newton Street for the State Bar Examina- 
tions. All details of the seating of candidates had been 
prearranged, so it was merely necessary to take the 
seats allotted to us in alphabetical order. Upon each 
desk lay official examination books. Promptly at nine 
o'clock, we received our examination questions for the 
forenoon session. 

I read my questions through carefully and, at the 
first reading, it seemed that I could not answer halt 
of them. But I had steeled myself for the ordeal, and 
I set about the task with careful deliberation. Since 
there were fifteen questions I must average one an- 
swer every twelve minutes in order to finish by twelve 
o'clock. But there were some questions that I knew 
I could not answer in so short a time, while there were 
others that I could answer readily. 

I hit upon a solution that I should strongly advise 
for other men in a similar plight. I answered the easy 
questions first, (for each question had a certain 
amount of space allotted to it by number), and in this 
way, cleared away a goodly number of the questions 
in the first hour. 

39 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

To my relief, I found that questions at first seeming- 
ly outside of any principle of law that I had ever read 
were, after all, possible of solution by analogy with 
certain fundamental principles. It is probably true 
that I answered some questions very wide of the mark, 
but at five minutes of twelve I had answered every 
question on the forenoon paper. 

The heat of the day had been very oppressive in- 
doors, but the sun was fairly scorching the streets 
when I left the building for lunch. I walked up Tre- 
mont Street to School Street in order to work off the 
nervous tension under which I was laboring; ate a 
frugal meal in a dairy lunch ; rested half an hour at the 
ofhce in the Old South Building, and returned to the 
examination building for the afternoon ordeal. 

We began at two o'clock. The afternoon was a 
repetition of the morning so far as my experiences and 
methods of work were concerned. Again I answered 
every question and was leaving the building when the 
gongs rang to end the afternoon session. 

I had done my best, and I felt that my chances of 
passing were reasonably secure. But I had learned 
enough from other men who had taken the examina- 
tions to know that the ways of the bar examiners were 
past finding out, and that no man could be sure of 
success until notified of the result. 

Subsequent observation has confirmed me in this 
opinion, for in the case of my own students I have so 
often seen the brilliant student flunk and the dull 
student pass that I have given up the habit of fore- 
casting even to myself the result of a bar examination. 

I remember two of my own students in particular 
who took the same examination. One had completed 



40 



I 



THE LAST BARRIER 

his four-year course with a splendid record, the other 
had taken only three years of work and had found 
great difficulty in passing the school examinations up 
to that point. I felt confident at the time that the 
first man had ten chances to the other man's one, but 
the second man passed and the other flunked. 

I have often thought that more attention should be 
paid to the school record of applicants for admission 
to the bar, but schools are called upon merely to say 
that a man passed his school examinations, without 
specifying whether his rank was seventy-five per cent., 
or ninety-five per cent. The bar examiners do not 
meet the men personally, but pass judgment upon 
them from one examination in writing, whereas there 
is available information ten times more valuable which 
they absolutely ignore — the entire record that each ap- 
plicant from a law school has made during the years 
of his preparation. 

Immediately after the bar examinations, I took a 
train for Maine to spend a month at my boyhood's 
home while waiting to hear my fate. But I did not go 
there exactly for rest. If I were to start the school in 
September my lecture notes must be prepared during 
the only time that remained open to me — the month 
of July, for I was to assume my duties at Carver & 
Blodgett's in the second week in August, provided my 
name should appear in the list of lawyers-elect when 
the results of the bar examinations were made known. 

During the month of July I worked on the farm 
more or less, fished, tramped through the woods, and 
picked berries, but these were only incidentals, for my 
main purpose was centered on the preparation of lec- 
ture notes in "Contracts" and "Criminal Law." 



41 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

In three weeks' time I had finished them. One day 
as I returned from a few hours' fishing trip with my 
youngest brother, I found awaiting me the fateful let- 
ter. 

It was printed, and couched in formal language. I 
read it through twice before I realized that I had 
passed — that the last barrier had been cleared away 
and my life-long ambition was now to be realized! 



\ 



I 



42 



I PREPARE TO FOUND THE SCHOOL 



CHAPTER IX. 

I Prepare to Found the School. 

I reported for duty at Carver & Blodgett's the sec- 
ond week in August, 1906, and was at once introduced 
to my new duties. It is natural and proper that the 
member of the office staff who is least experienced, 
and whose time is therefore of least value, should be 
given the routine work that every law office must 
carry on. Copying legal documents, looking up rec- 
ords, filing pleadings in court and dictating letters 
in collection cases were the chief duties that came to 
me at first. 

But I was quite disconcerted day after day by the 
fact that I was so absolutely ignorant of all practical 
features of law practice. I was well grounded in legal 
theories, but knew no more of how to start a law- 
suit, or conduct it after it was started ; how to open a 
case in court, or to examine witnesses, than the office 
boy who had never studied law. I soon found that, 
although these things were not taught in law schools, 
yet they were perfectly well known to every lawyer 
of experience. I resolved that in my own school these 
practical matters should be as carefully taught as the 
theory of the law itself. 

My own experience as a student and a young prac- 
tioner had, therefore, brought to my attention another 
weakness in the current methods of teaching law. 

43 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

From this discovery resulted another of the strong 
features of the Suffolk Law School. I set about de- 
liberately to learn all that I could of the practical 
side of the law, whether it concerned my regular du- 
ties or not. From this beginning resulted, as will 
be later seen, my first law book, which I wrote in the 
year 1909 — the only text book to this date that sets 
forth the practical but unwritten customs of law 
offices and courts. 

On the morning of August 21st, 1906 I left my 
office duties long enough to go to the Supreme Court 
and be sworn in as a lawyer. The ceremony itself 
was simple but very impressive. I am sure that each 
of us in that large assembly of young men who, with 
upraised right hands, repeated the oath of the lawyer, 
did so with a prayer of thanksgiving to God that we 
were now members of the great and noble profession 
of law. 

From the day I had returned to Boston I had been 
devoting my evenings to house-hunting ; for I realized 
that it was no easy task to locate apartments in which 
I could instal my bride, when October should come, 
and also that would contain a room large enough to 
accommodate the school. I was aware that the slen- 
der revenue of the school would be very heavily taxed 
by the hiring of an office in Boston, so that the only 
safe plan was to establish a residence in som.e conven- 
ient location where I could also shelter the school 
during its infancy. 

I eventually located a house at 6 Alpine Street, 
Roxbury, in which the first floor suited my needs ex- 
actly. It had a fair-sized front room, with a bay- 
window that overlooked the street. I could use the 
room for lecture purposes, and place in the bay-win- 

44 



I PREPARE TO FOlTND THE SCHOOL 

dow transparent glass signs that would proclaim 
"Archer's Evening Law School" to any one who ap- 
proached the house from either direction. 

The bargain was struck with the landlord. The 
glass signs were made and installed and I began to 
accumulate household furniture. I equipped the 
school room with light wooden assembly chairs of a 
folding variety, and a flat topped mission office desk 
for myself. During my leisure moments I con- 
structed about two dozen desks of my own invention 
for the convenience of the students. 

The increasing items of expense now gave me gen- 
uine concern, for my salary was small and the money 
that I paid out for school equipment and school ad- 
vertising, with what must be set aside for rent, left 
very little for the furnishing of the domestic portion 
of my apartments. 

I resolutely refrained from calling upon Mr. Frost 
for a loan. It was a matter of pride with me to dem- 
onstrate that now that I was a lawyer there was no 
necessity of assistance from anybody. 

But the results of the summer advertising were 
much the more a matter of concern, for very few 
inquiries had come in. A necessity of radical meas- 
ures seemed apparent. Aside from the changes that 
I made in the advertisements then running in the 
newspapers, the measures that I adopted were not 
only radical but also, as I look at them now, quite 
useless as well. 

I sent out a large number of advertising folders to 
men in clerical employment, taking their names at 
random from the Boston Directory. The only result 
of this labor was that it bolstered up my hopes and 

45 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

kept me busy when I might otherwise have been 
worrying — a result not altogether to be despised. 

But in the midst of my labors, when time was so 
valuable, if I was to launch the school successfully, 
I caught a severe cold. The inevitable occurred. For 
ten days I was confined to my bed with bronchitis. 
My brother Hiram was living with me. With what 
attention he could give me night and morning, and 
what hospital experience had taught me to do for 
myself I parsed through the ordeal, a doctor visiting 
me occasionally. 

The fact that I was unable to carry on my work 
at Carver & Blodgett's was of course my chiefest con- 
cern, but the enforced neglect of the advertising sea- 
son, — it was now the early part of September and the 
school was to open in two weeks — filled me with 
alarm. For a time I was of course too ill to worry 
much about work or advertising, but during the lat- 
ter part of my illness some of the prospective stu- 
dents began to call at the house in the evening to ask 
questions. 

Mr. George A. Douglas, who later entered the 
school and is now a member of the faculty, was one 
of those who called at this time. As I was too , 
ill to see him, my brother met him. From where I 
lay, some of the conversation could be overheard. 
He did not register, however. All students who have 
taken "Criminal Law" and "Agency" under Mr. 
Douglas will readily understand why, without having 
seen him, I gained the impression from his voice that 
he was a very large man. 

When I was able to return to my office duties and 
resume the advertising campaign, the outlook for the 
opening of the school was very unpromising. 

46 



I PREPARE TO FOUND THE SCHOOL 

Three out of the five men who had registered dur- 
ing the summer announced that they had given up 
the idea of studying law. One of the regular men of 
the previous year called at the house a few evenings 
before the opening night and announced that he had 
been attending the Y. M. C. A. Law School, for over a 
week and should not return. 

Several other men whom I had interested to the 
point of studying law had also been secured by the 
Y. M. C. A. Law School, but to have one of my "old 
guard" desert me at this juncture filled me with dis- 
appointment and alarm. Knowing as I did the strong 
drawing powers of the Y. M. C. A. organization, and 
not having heard from some of the other men, I 
feared that my little venture had met a complete 
shipwreck during my illness, and that other men of 
my original four had joined the big evening law 
school. I had made my first acquaintance with the 
competition of a powerful rival, even though the 
rival was probably not yet officially aware of my ex- 

I istence or of the ambitious plan that I had in mind. 

1 But, after the first sleepless night, I plunged into 

i a last campaign ; realizing that only a desperate cam- 
paign indeed, could save the school from utter failure 
at the very beginning. New advertisements were de- 
vised and every effort was put forth to reach new 

imen. 



47 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER X. 

The Humble Beginning. 

The momentous opening evening, Tuesday, Sep- 
tember 19th, 1906, at length arrived. The men came 
straggling into the little lecture room at 6 Alpine 
Street, Roxbury, until there were exactly nine of 
them — just one more than had gathered in the Old 
South Building when I opened my experimental class 
in law the previous October. 

But the situation was not near so favorable as on 
that occasion. Then only one of the eight was a 
visitor, whereas on this occasion five of the nine were 
visitors. Messrs. Collar, Dahl and Smith of the pre- 
vious class were present, but only one new man who 
had registered. 

Keenly aware of the expense that I had incurred 
during the summer, this barren result was very dis- 
heartening. But I had put my hand to the plow and 
the furrow must be driven straight onward. So I 
swallowed my disappointment and vowed that my 
first lecture should be so interesting that I would 
capture every one of the five visitors. 

If I remember correctly, we took up Agency that 
evening. It was not long before I could see that the 
men were keenly interested in the subject, and just 
as I was feeling' most confident of the success of my 
lecture an event occurred that filled me with con- 
sternation and alarm. 



48 



I 



THE HUMBLE BEGINNING 

The chairs had never before been occupied and 
were so new that the varnish had evidently failed to 
properly harden. At any rate, the unseasonable 
warmth of the evening had caused the varnish to de- 
velop sticky qualities. To my infinite dismay I ob- 
served that one of the students was stuck to his chair 
and covertly endeavoring to free himself. 

He succeeded, but the ominous stripping sound 
with which the fibre of the cloth of his trousers parted 
company with the varnish set every man in the room 
on the move. There was a perfect chorus of similar 
sounds from eight other chairs. 

If anything could have been more shattering to the 
composure of a lecturer under my circumstances than 
this happening, it would be hard indeed to find it. 
The majority of these men were visitors who might 
or might not register according to the impression 
made by that first lecture. To be seated in sticky 
chairs that, for aught they knew, might ruin their 
clothes was enough to make a failure of any lecture. 

Thoughts of damage suits, and certainly of dam- 
aged suits, flitted through my mind. I forged des- 
perately ahead with my lecture, hoping against hope 
that the thing would not happen again. But at the 
second uprising, that occurred within ten minutes, I 
abruptly suspended my lecture in scarlet confusion. 

The men assured me, however, that no damage had 
been done. Somebody produced a newspaper and 
distributed a sheet to every chair and the men set- 
tled down upon these rustling protectors with sighs 
of relief. But the humor of the situation burst upon' 
all of us. When the general laughter had subsided I 
resumed my lecture, and continued to the end of the 
period without further interruption. 

49 



■ BUILDING A SCHOOL 

I was cheered not a little by the manifest enthus- 
iasm of the men — three of the visitors, George A. 
Douglas, M. V. Connor and John J. Murphy imme- 
diately registered, while one other asked to be al- 
lowed to attend the lecture of the following evening. 

After the first week the following lecture schedule 
was pursued : Monday evening, "Bills & Notes ;" 
Tuesday evening," Contracts ;" Wednesday evening, 
"Agency," and Friday evening, "Criminal Law," all 
of which I taught personally, the sessions lasting 
from 7.30 to about 9.15 P. M. 

During the second week five new men were regis- 
tered: B. E. Hamilton, one of the visitors on open- 
ing evening, George L. Bush, Israel Mostowitz, 
Charles N. Chase and James F. O'Brien. 

The third week added two others to the roll, B. H. 
Zuccurello and James F. Quigley, making a total of 
fourteen students, but only for a brief time, for 
Messrs. Connor, Quigley and Hamilton dropped out 
within the first month, leaving eleven men to finish 
the fall term. 

The story of this first term of school would not be 
complete were I to omit the most important event of 
all — my marriage to Miss Elizabeth G. Snyder, whose 
loyal sympathy and unswerving faith in the future of 
the institution were to do so much to strengthen me 
in the trying days that were to follow. 



50 



THE SCHOOL'S FIRST YEAR 



CHAPTER XI. 

The School's First Year. 

The winter term opened December 3rd, 1906, with 
nine of the regular men in attendance, Mr. Zuccurello 
and Mr, Larkin having dropped out temporarily. Sev- 
eral new men were added through advertising in the 
daily papers, and a new entering class was formed. The 
new men were to take "Torts" with the r^ular class 
and "Contracts" by themselves, two evenings per 
week, under the instruction of Hiram J. Archer until 
they should catch up with the regular class. 

The additional men comprised, Hannibal L. Hamlin, 
Andrew H. Morrison, Forrest B. Moulton and 
Thomas L. Talty, whose name appears in the original 
class formed in 1905. Roland E. Brown was also en- 
rolled for Torts and Criminal Law. Mr. Larkin and 
Mr. Zuccurello returned at this time. 

Mr. Mostowitz dropped out during the third week of 
the term, leaving fourteen men in attendance during the 
winter of 1906- 1907. 

An incident occurred in the early part of this term 
that gives my wife the unique distinction of being the 
only woman who has ever taught in the school. My 
brother, Hiram, who was assisting the new men to make 
up the work in "Contracts" fell ill and was unable to 
continue his duties. My wife volunteered to dictate the 
remainder of the notes, although she knew nothing of 

51 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

what they were all about. The men were obviously 
pleased at the prospect of so fair a teacher, but the joke 
was on them. Mrs. Archer was not used to dictating 
notes, and the men were too polite to tell her that she 
was dictating too fast, so she went on to make a record 
that can never be equalled again. At the end of the I 
period the men were all on the verge of writers' cramps, I 
and had taken twice as much dictation as was ever given I 
in the school, even by Mr. Douglas years later in his ' 
first lecture in "Criminal Law." 

The winter term closed February 15, 1907, after a 
very successful season. My brother's illness had made 
necessary the employment of someone else to give the 
course in "Partnership," which was scheduled to be 
given in the Spring term. My choice fell upon Arthur 
W. MacLean, who graduated from the Law School at 
the same time I did, and whom I had known for several 
years as a man of ability and of the very highest char- 
acter. He thus became the first regular teacher whom I 
appointed to assist me in the work. 

Two men, Mr. Chase and Mr. Zuccurello, left the 
school during the Spring term; but four others were 
added, raising the total to sixteen men. The new 
men were R. G. Reilly, Geo. A. Rose, Robert T. 
Healey and A. L. Altmeyer. 

Of the sixteen men who attended in the Spring Term 
it is interesting to note that seven afterward grad- 
uated from the school and nine of them became law- 
yers. 

As I recall it now, the eager enthusiasm of these 
men — so different from what I had been accustomed 
to among day students in the law school that I had 
so recently attended — made a very profound impres- 
sion upon me. As an illustration of this enthusiasm^ 



THE SCHOOL'S FIRST YEAR 

I remember very well the first evening that I ex- 
plained to them the different stages of an ordinary- 
law suit. I prefaced my remarks by saying that I 
was about to institute practical work which would 
involve every stage of an ordinary court trial, the 
drawing of writs, the entry of suits, the examination 
of witnesses, etc. The effect upon the men was magi- 
cal. Every one caught his chair, like a man perform- 
ing the impossible task of lifting himself by the boot- 
straps, and came crowding up around my desk, eager 
not to miss a word ! 

To be sure it was a very undignified performance, 
but it illustrated more plainly than words the differ- 
ence between these eager searchers for knowledge and 
the ordinary day student with his self complacent 
languor in class. 

It dawned upon me that a great opportunity had 
suddenly unfolded itself before me. In a great me- 
tropolis full of young men such as these, the very 
class from whom leaders of first magnitude arise, once 
the shackles of ignorance are struck off and high and 
noble ambitions are enkindled within them, what 
might I not be able to accomplish ! 

It was a blood stirring thought that but for me 
these men would be denied the very advantages that 
might place them on the road to destiny. I then re- 
solved that so far as in me lay I would perpetuate the 
school and dedicate it to the cause of the ambitious 
boy, who, like myself, had known in his youth the 
treadmill of poverty while shut off from education, the 
means of liberty. 

This was the very class of men most ignored by the 
other law schools, permitted to enter if at all on suf- 
ferance, but frowned upon and discouraged at every 

53 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

point. There was a great unoccupied field for a non- 
sectarian school that would strongly champion the 
son of the workingman. Such a school I resolved to 
permanently establish in Boston. 

The first year of the school closed on May 17th, 
1907. The attendance had steadily risen, from nine 
men at the opening night to sixteen men at its close. 
The tuition charge was forty-five dollars a year and 
the total receipts for the year were only $533. But 
considering all things in the year's perspective, I 
could not but feel a satisfaction in the progress I had 
made. 

Clouds were lowering, however, and even before 
the last month of school had passed I was vaguely 
aware that there were difficult problems to be solved 
and other battles to be won before the school should 
open in the following September. 



54 



A CONFERENCE WITH MY STUDENTS 



CHAPTER XII. 

A Conference With My Students. 

The first grand glimpse of the destiny of the school 
and its possible high mission left me like one who 
has been suddenly dazzled by a bright light, keenly 
aware of the dark shadows that immediately after- 
ward surround him. I at once saw that, if I were to 
work intelligently toward the goal, the present school 
name must be abandoned, however my pride in hav- 
ing the school bear my name might plead for its 
continuance. 

It was apparent that the name of an individual 
would prove a great handicap, despite the fact that 
the great universities of the country were so named. 
I realized that no man in this age of the world could 
hope to accomplish much with an institution named 
for himself, unless he belonged to the aristocracy of 
wealth, and could by that means awe the public into 
respect for his plans. 

Another problem that stood out ominously was 
this : My Alpine Street apartments would not be ade- 
quate to house the school for another year. I there- 
fore began a systematic canvas of that section of 
Roxbury, although my time was so limited that my 
wife and I were obliged to utilize our Sunday after- 
noon walks for that purpose. 

Week after week passed, increasing if anything my 

55 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

perplexity, for the rents were either prohibitive or the 
rooms too small. Once or twice I located a house 
that I thought would meet the requirements, but in 
order to secure it for September it must be rented 
immediately, an expense quite out of the question. 

A greater and more ominous problem than either of 
the others suddenly uprose before me. I learned that 
the firm of Carver & Blodgett, with whom I was 
employed, would dissolve in July. In that event I 
should be obliged to seek a salaried position with 
another firm, or open an office for myself. I was well 
aware that a salaried position could not be had for 
the asking, and, even if it could, I was doubtful of 
the wisdom of further delaying the beginning of my 
own law practice. 

It has always been my belief, however, that if one 
faces his problems unflinchingly, searching prayer- 
fully for a solution of them while still to the utmost 
of his ability performing the task next at hand, that 
the way would ultimately open. 

I have never had patience with that man who loses 
his grip on his present tasks merely because he can- 
not clearly see the solution of greater problems ahead, 
thus becoming a ready prey to despair and failure. 
Such a man is like a traveler on a road whose general 
direction is toward his desired goal — the far off cita- 
del on the heights, but who drops by the wayside in 
despair because, forsooth, he cannot trace with his 
present vision the entire course of that road. 

With all the problems that confronted me in the 
spring of 1907 there were no "ifs" nor "ands" about 
my mental attitude toward them — they would each 
be solved in due course, I was sure of that. But I 
spent many a wakeful night pondering them. 

56 



A CONFERENCE WITH MY STUDENTS 

The loyalty of the students v/as comforting and 
helpful. The first banquet ever held by the school 
was arranged by the students for the night following 
the last examinations — Saturday, May i8, 1907. But 
I was unable to be present. The work and worry of 
the past few weeks had rendered me an easy prey to 
bronchitis, and I was sick abed. 

I have in my possession one of the menus, printed 
by a member of the class, and it possesses historical 
interest for two reasons — first that it is a souvenir of 
the first banquet, and secondly that it was the last bit 
of printed matter to bear the original school name. 
It marked a transition period, for the students had 
already begun to drop the word "evening" and call 
it the "Archer Law School." It was so printed on 
the cover of the menu. 

As soon as my wife's careful nursing had brought 
me out of my illness sufficiently to attend my duties, 
I felt that the time had come, now that the school 
was over, to wrestle with the three great problems 
that were still before me : the school name, the loca- 
tion of the school for the following year, and the 
question of a salaried employment. 

Knowing as I did that the success of the school 
would be tremendously afifected by the name and lo- 
cation, I realized that the only way to approximately 
ascertain the probable sentiment of young men in 
general toward the name or location adopted was to 
accurately ascertain the sentiment of my students. 
I therefore wrote personal invitations to the students 
to meet me at 6 Alpine Street to discuss the problems 
confronting the school. 

A number of the men responded. The decision of 
the conference was unanimous that the best interests 



57 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

of the school demanded a more central location. It 
should be located in Boston. I inquired of each man 
in turn for suggestions as to possible locations. A 
Boylston Street address was given me ; also that of a 
building recently vacated by a dental school on 
Tremont Street. 

The school catalogue for the coming year was dis- j 
cussed. I was uncertain in my own mind whether a 
folder similar to what I had issued the previous year 
would be adequate, or whether I must undertake the 
expense of regular school catalogue. The men were 
divided on the question, but when it had been argued j 
pro and con I announced that I should issue a cata- ' 
logue. 

But the school name proved the most fruitful topic 
of discussion. All present favored a change of name, 
as I had already surmised, but no two of them were 
agreed upon any name that was brought forward. 
Mr. Douglas offered two names during the evening, 
"Boston Law School" and "Massachusetts School of 
Law," but I ruled out the first name as too nearly 
approaching the name of Boston University Law 
School. His second suggestion I promised to con- 
sider. 

When the little company dispersed, after an en- 
thusiastic meeting, I felt that I had made great prog- 
ress in the solution of the questions confronting the 
school. As I look back upon it now I consider it a 
most fortunate occurrence, although in the perspec- 
tive of years I can see that practically all the internal 
dissentions, revolts and troubles among the students 
that were later to try my very soul originated indi- 
rectly from that meeting. Why and how these 
troubles came to me will be disclosed in due course 
in the pages of this history. 

58 



A CRISIS IN THE SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A Crisis in the School. 

Inasmuch as the school name was the first problem 
that was actually solved, it may with propriety be 
dealt with in this connection. It must not be sup- 
posed, however, that any of the other problems were 
neglected in the meantime, for all my odd moments 
were devoted to an endeavor to locate a desirable 
law firm that needed my services, and wherever I 
went I was continually on the alert for a desirable 
location for the school, as well as pondering much 
upon a school name. 

My wife and I would often discuss names for the 
school. Such names as Bay State, Massachusetts, 
Atlantic, New England and Suffolk were each con- 
sidered. None of them seemed satisfactory at first, 
but the name "Suflfolk" gradually emerged from the 
lot as most appropriate of all. To be sure it was the 
name of a county in Massachusetts, but it was also 
an old English name derived from the more ancient 
"South-folk." 

The name of a school, as I regarded the question, 
should possess alliterative qualities, be clear cut and 
sonorous. The word Suflfolk possessed all of these 
qualities. I finally decided to rename the school 
"SuflFolk School of Law," and this was the school 
name for seven years until 1914, when by an act of 

59 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

the Legislature the official name was changed to 
"Suffolk Law School." 

On the day following the meeting described in the 
last chapter I investigated the locations referred to 
by the students and found each of them to be impoS' 
sible, either from the standpoint of rental or because 
of their inconvenient location. 

For a time I considered the advisability of hiring 
a building on Pinckney Street, Boston (within a 
block of the present home of the school) but the prob- 
lem of sub-letting the rooms that I would not need 
was too precarious a venture, for they would have 
to be let in the same manner as a lodging house. 

Still intent upon securing this building, I proposed 
to a young man who had previously managed the 
building when it was used by college students as a 
fraternity house, that if he would lease it I would 
hire the first floor for lecture purposes. He prom- 
ised to consider it, but later informed me that he had 
decided against it. 

The uncertainty of my own plans for the coming 
year was a serious drawback in the solution of the 
school location, and I soon decided that the matter 
of location must wait until that question was deter- 
mined. 

One of the students who was acquainted with 
Charles H. Innes, Esq., informed me that Mr. Innes 
had expressed a desire to see me. I knew that this 
gentleman had been tutoring men in law for many 
years, and I rightly conjectured that law teaching 
would be the subject of our interview. 

I made an appointment by telephone and waited 
upon him promptly. Our interview was quite ex- 
tended. I well remember one of the first things he 
said to me : 

60 



i 



A CRISIS IN THE SCHOOL 

"I have been teaching law," he said, "for about 
twenty years, and I have nearly seventy students, but 
I call my enterprise a class. I don't call it a school. 
People would laugh at me if I did. Now you have about 
fifteen students, and it is only an experiment with you, — 
yet you call it a school. I can't understand why you 
do it." 

I explained to him that I called my enterprise a school 
because I proposed to make it a school and to conduct 
it on the very same basis as the regular law schools. 
Mr. Innes seemed mildly amused at my optimism and 
doubteless regarded me as a hopeless visionary. 

He suggested combining our schools, but since he 
could not agree to my plans for a regular law school, 
nor I with his scheme of teaching, we soon found that 
we could not effect a merger. 

Without making a definite proposition to me, he inti- 
mated that if I would assist him in his teaching and 
also become associated with the office (Vahey, Innes 
& Mansfield) to assist in trial work, I might be al- 
lowed a salary that seemed to me at the time quite 
attractive. 

These negotiations were continued for some days, 
until I became convinced that Mr. Innes was more inter- 
ested in absorbing my school than anything else, thus 
to head off competition, so I let the matter drop. 

My failure to secure a desirable position with a law 
firm was driving me with much reluctance, because of 
my financial condition, to the conclusion that I must 
start out for myself. I consulted Mr. Blodgett, of the 
firm of Carver & Blodgett, then about to dissolve, and 
he advised me to take the step, declaring a temporary 
shift to be a loss of time. I also consulted Mr. Frost, 
and he urged me to take Mr. Blodgett's advice seriously 

6i 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

I continued my search for a location, and discovered 
that there was a suite of offices to let in the Old Suffolk 
Savings Bank Building, at 53 Tremont Street, Boston. 
The rent asked was reasonable, but combined with pay- 
ing teachers, purchasing additional school furniture, ad- , 
vertising, etc., would make necessary a school income 1 
of at least $1,400. 

There would be no weekly salary to help along in the 
finances. The actual cash receipts from the school for 
the previous year had been about one-third of the 
amount the school must yield during the coming year if 
I were to keep above water financially. Then, too, there 
was a summer vacation without salary or school revenue, 
during which money must be expended for advertising 
and printing. 

I had saved every possible dollar during the year, 
but the fund could not by the most careful manage- 
ment promise to hold out beyond the early part of 
October for my household expenses alone, so I was 
naturally not in a position to make withdrawals from 
that fund for the school. 

The whole matter, therefore, hinged upon my ability 
to secure enough students to raise the school revenue to 
$1,400. Several of my present students were unable to 
pay tuition, or if at all, tardily ; so I must secure at least 
twenty-two additional students. The situation was in- 
deed a desperate one. 

My wife and I discussed it pro and con for several 
days, and in this first great crisis of the school she 
proved herself to be a woman of rare courage and of 
abounding faith in the future of the institution. 

After much thoughtful and prayerful deliberation we 
came to the firm conclusion that the step should be taken 
and we would abide the result. 

62 



THE FATEFUL SUMMER OF 1907 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Fateful Summer of 1907. 

I lost no time in negotiating for the suite of offices at 
53 Tremont Street. In one of my trips to the building 
I met an elderly lawyer, Charles B. Stone, who occu- 
pied as tenant-at-will a suite of offices on the floor 
below, much more to my fancy. He signified his 
intention to vacate in the fall, so I arranged it with 
him that I would take over the place in August. He 
offered to sell me a set of Massachusetts Reports, and 
within a few days I purchased them for the school, 
having borrowed the money of Mr. Frost. 

The question of an associate in the practice of law 
had been on my mind for some time. My brother Hiram 
had been admitted to the bar during the previous winter, 
but his health was in so precarious a condition that I 
was uncertain whether he would be able to stay in Bos- 
ton during the coming year. 

My thoughts naturally turned to Arthur W. MacLean, 
previously mentioned as having taught Partnership in 
the school. Like myself, he had served a year's appren- 
ticeship in a well known law office, and I was confident 
that he would be favorably disposed toward opening an 
office of his own. 

So I invited him to join with me in a law partner- 
ship, and he promptly accepted the ofifer. The bargain 

63 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 1 

was closed with the owners for the suite of offices on the 
third floor, previously mentioned as occupied by Mr. 
Stone. 

The new firm was to open September first as 
"Archer & MacLean." 

With the dissolution of the firm of Carver & Blodgett, 
which occurred within a few days, I found myself with 
leisure time to prepare for the coming year. The cata- 
logue was gotten out — a twelve-page booklet of very 
respectable appearance. 

The faculty as listed were Gleason L. Archer, Prin- 
cipal ; Arthur W. MacLean, Hiram J. Archer, Frederick 
O. Downes and Webster A. Chandler. 

My experience of the previous year in losing so many 
men to the Y. M. C. A. Law School had led me to 
suppose that it would be wiser to open up my school 
two weeks after the other had begun, thus giving me 
more time to advertise after competition had to a certain 
measure ceased. 

The advertising campaign in September, 1907, brought 
little assurance that the necessary twenty-two new stu- 
derits could be secured, but it was not a time to repine 
or turn back. Everything depended upon a successful 
outcome. I was at the office day and evening waiting 
and watching for prospective students ; allowing scarcely 
time for lunch or supper, lest men should call during 
my absence. 

Financial difficulties loomed up ahead, and the law 
practice tkat had come in was of a most unproductive 
sort. Never did I have more occasion for worriment, 
nor could I share my troubles with my wife, for she was 
in a state of health when composure and freedom from 
worry were imperatively necessary. So I kept her in 
ignorance of the true state of affairs and went on day 

64 



THE FATEFUL SUMMER OF 1907 

after day and far into the evening several nights a 
week in a disheartening vigil. 

Could I have spent the time with some degree of 
profit it would have been less difficult. I tried my hand 
at literary work of one sort or another, but neither 
stories nor sketches produced under these circum- 
stances possessed commercial value, and I watched 
my little bank account dwindle to the vanishing point. 

During the latter part of September stragglers came 
into the office occasionally, the most of them skeptical 
and desiring "to be shown" that the school could act- 
ually train men for the practice of law. The former 
students had maintained an ominous silence, except 
in a few cases where the loss of some of them wasi 
made certain. One of the most desirable had enrolled 
at Boston University Law School. Another an- 
nounced that he had given up the further pursuit of 
the study of law, and I feared every day that I might 
learn that others had joined the Y, M. C. A. Law 
School. 

Up to the date of opening of the Fall Term only six 
men had registered. A few days before opening night 
I wrote personal letters to my former students, and 
also to every man on my mailing list, inviting them to 
be present as visitors at the opening lecture. 



65 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XV. 

A Student Mutiny. 

On the evening of Monday, the last day of September, 
1907, the Suffolk School of Law opened. We were at 
that time under a three year system, so I shall denomin- 
ate the second year class as Juniors. I had engaged a 
large office across the corridor from the school head- 
quarters for use on lecture evenings. The Juniors met 
in this office, while the Freshman Class met in the large 
outer office of our suite. 

If I remember correctly, Mr. MacLean met the Juniors 
and started lectures in Real Property. I met the Fresh- 
men, as I always have done on the first evening of the 
year. 

All things considered, no opening lecture was ever 
more trying for me. Among the visitors were several 
"fresh" individuals, who seemingly came for the express 
purpose of making trouble. They attempted to air their 
superior knowledge of law and otherwise to annoy me 
until I was obliged to "squelch" them, after which 
they remained quiet and submissive the rest of the 
evening. 

The lecture itself was fairly successful, but I was dis- 
tressed indeed at the outcome, for only two of the visit- 
ors registered, although the fact that I had extended an 
invitation to them to attend the remaining lectures of 
the week doubtless had something to do with the fail- 
ure to register. 

66 



A STUDENT MUTINY 

The lecture broke up, and the confusion of question- 
asking by individuals ensued. Some men who attend 
their first lecture are sure to have doubts about their 
educational qualifications, or entertain incorrect ideas 
as to the time when tuition is due. I had been suffering 
from a headache before the lecture began, but it had now 
so greatly increased that before the last questioner had 
left me I was in a state of pain, mental confusion and 
weariness such as I had never experienced before. 

But to cap the climax, and to stamp that evening as 
one of the most trying of my life, the Juniors filed into 
the room, even before the last of the new men had left, 
and their hostile and belligerent looks warned me at 
once that trouble was in the air. The shock of this dis- 
covery was all the greater because their loyalty of the 
previous year had led me to suppose that I could rely 
upon them in this crisis of the school's aflfairs. 

The most of the men were silent, waiting for their 
spokesmen to voice their woes. Nor were spokesmen 
wanting, and soon they were pouring accusations of 
shabby treatment because they had learned that I was 
not planning to teach them personally that year. They 
also asserted that our plan to use text books in Real 
Property and Equity would result in half the class leav- 
ing the school. Too surprised and dumfounded to meet 
the issue that night, I mollified the class the best I could 
and promised to take their grievances under advise- 
ment, 

I returned home, too exhausted to sleep, and on the 
verge of despair. I could not for my life imagine the 
reason for the great change that had come over the 
Juniors, but a real change there was I felt sure. 

Wednesday evening came. Even before my lecture to 
the Freshmen, the Juniors began worrying me with com- 

67 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

plaints; but I told them to see me after lecture, for I 
realized that I must make a supreme effort to win new 
men — only eight of the necessary twenty-two had 
registered. The visitors were less numerous on this 
evening, but the class was decidedly more friendly. One 
or two new men had registered after the lecture, when 
the trouble makers from the second year class appeared j | 
to resume their interrupted interview. 

Again they insisted that it was unfair for me to teach 
the Freshmen and turn them over to others. They inti- 
mated that I didn't care what happened to them now that 
I had some other students, and they argued that because 
they were to be the first graduates the success of the 
school would depend upon their ability to pass the bar 
examinations. They reasoned, therefore, that it was my 
duty to teach them junior and senior subjects as well as 
what I had taught them the previous year. 

My predicament was a difficult one, and I realized that 
a rash move would ruin the school. I felt that the 
trouble had already hindered me greatly in winning new 
students, but it was now likely to disrupt the class that I 
had counted upon as a nucleus around which to build 
the school. In the face of so grave a peril, I made a 
sudden shift in my plans and told the men that I 
would teach them Equity, and give my brother the 
course in Criminal Law which I had expected to teach 
the Freshmen. 

This served to pacify the belligerents semewhat, and 
they dispersed for the evenng. But the change had 
placed an additional burden upon my shoulders. Equity 
is a difficult subject for one to prepare to teach, especially 
on so short a notice. 

On Friday evening I made good my promise to teach 
Equity, but I found the class so belligerent on the sub- 

68 



A STUDENT MUTINY 

ject of text books that I decided not to force the issue, 
but to withdraw the text book requirement and give 
notes in all subjects. 

The last evening for visitors had now passed and only 
eleven new men had registered. By this time I had 
given up hope of the necessary number of students, my 
whole concern now being to minimize the inevitable 
deficit in the school exchequer as much as was possible. 

By nature I am long suffering and slow to anger, but 
when the second week came and the Juniors still hung 
like a millstone about my neck, impeding my every 
effort, I began seriously to think of disbanding the 
whole class. I observed, however, upon watching them 
narrowly, that only two or three of them were actively 
hostile and that these few had not paid their tuition. It 
was evidently a deliberate attempt to coerce me into 
changes of plan — in other words these men were trying 
to run the school. 

I awaited their next move, ready to take swift and 
summary action. They now came forward with two 
additional demands. The first was for typewritten notes, 
a matter I had already considered, but had ruled against 
because it would have a tendency to encourage students 
to cut lectures, and would result in a school but little 
superior to a correspondence school. I told the men 
flatly that they could not have typewritten notes, and 
explained the reason. 

Their second demand was for early and late divisions. 
This might have given me a clue to all the trouble. I 
had announced in the new catalogue that we would form 
early and late divisions of classes if there was a sufficient 
number of men to warrant it, but as a matter of fact, 
there was no such division to be made of the Freshman 



69 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Class. The trouble makers had seized upon this an- 
nouncement as a pretext for further annoyance, but as 
there was less than a dozen men in the Junior Class the 
new request was nothing short of preposterous. 

My turn had now fully come. I told the men that 
there would be no division of the class — they would 
either attend in a body early or they would come late. 
If there was even one man in the class who could not 
come early, then there would be no early session. 

Warmed up to the subject, I told the class that from 
this day forth we were going to have fewer stu- 
dents or harmony; that school poHcies were now clearly 
defined, and any student who was still dissatisfied with 
them should at once leave the class, for I had fully 
resolved to expell the next trouble maker that showed 
his head. 

Upon the close of my remarks I requested every man 
who would pledge himself to harmony and loyalty to the 
school to manifest it by an upraised hand. Every man 
but the two trouble makers raised his hand. Not only 
that, but they crowded around me after the lecture and 
assured me in most emphatic terms of their loyalty. 
The discredited "leaders" withdrew. When the class 
met again they were no longer members of the school. 
But I was still entirely at loss as to the true explana- 
tion of the hostility and malice of the trouble makers. It 
was not until the following year that I learned the truth 
from the lips of one of them. 

The cause was in itself trivial. It is extraordinary 
Aat any men should have taken offense, and adopted the 
attitude they did. The ringleader of all the trouble had 
been one of the men whom I had invited to the confer- 
ence at Roxbur}^ on the previous year. It seems that the 
invitation had so inflated his vanity that he considered 

70 



A STUDENT MUTINY 

himself one of the board of overseers of the school, and 
that I had voluntarily given over the management of 
the school to the students who had met me at that 
conference. 

Perhaps, also, the fact that nearly all of them were 
older than I had something to do with it, but at any rate 
this man chose to consider himself grievously slighted 
because I had adopted a new name for the school, issued 
a catalogue and selected a location in Boston, all without 
consulting the "board of overseers." To vent his spite 
and malice he was willing to go to any length, even 
to disrupting the school — if such a thing were 
possible. 



71 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XVI. 

School Finances, Real and Apparent. 

But now that the trouble had subsided, we settled 
down to a well ordered system. I flatter myself that 
only a tactful handling of a desperate situation and a 
firm dealing with the malcontents when they had been 
singled out could have saved the school in this crisis. 
There was another result not to be despised that flowed 
from this experience. It had fortified me in my position 
as head of the school and given me greater confidence in 
my ability to handle other difficulties that later arose, 
similar in character and traceable to the same original 
cause. 

Within the first three weeks of the Fall Term, the 
Freshmen registration had risen to eighteen men. Later 
in the term other men entered, but this increase was 
offset by the number of those who dropped out, so the 
average attendance of Freshmen for the Fall term con- 
tinued at about eighteen men, four less than the number 
which my estimate had called for as necessary to pay 
expenses. But my estimate had been based upon a more 
favorable situation in the Junior class. In addition to 
the men that I had lost, with the resulting loss of reve- 
nue, was also the fact that several men in the class were 
unable to pay their tuition. 

The dilatory payment of tuition throughout the school 
became, in fact, one of my greatest trials, as it ever 

72 



SCHOOL FINANCES REAL AND APPARENT 

afterward remained during- the trying years when the 
school expenses equaled or exceeded the tuition receipts. 
Some men took great offense at being asked to pay up, 
considering it a reflection upon their financial respon- 
sibility. 

One man that I recall, whose financial ability was un- 
questioned, left the school in anger at this time because 
he had received a bill. He upbraided me for not follow- 
ing commercial usages and allowing payment "after the 
service was rendered," as he expressed it. He had 
chosen to raise this issue before the entire class and to 
declare that he would quit the school rather than submit 
to such an "outrageous custom," so I met his challenge 
by telling him to go as soon as he pleased. He made a 
dramatic exit from the class. 

Had it not been for my law practice, scanty and un- 
productive as it was, it is hard to say how I would have 
gotten through that year. I had from long necessitj 
reduced economy to a science, and many a time I walked 
the three miles to or from my home to save a five cent 
car fare. 

Mr. Frost had still continued a custom that he had 
begun when I was a student, of giving me liberal dona- 
tions of clothing, and because of this I was able to 
make a presentable appearance, even though I did 
not spend twenty dollars on myself during the en- 
tire year of 1907-1908. 

My wife, although she did not realize in the least the 
financial straits I was in, was nevertheless the most 
economical of housewives. On January 22, 1908, 
the great event to which we had both looked for- 
ward with such eager interest occurred, and our 
first child, Allan Frost Archer, was born. I believe 

71 



BUILDING A SCHOOL I 

I was too happy to worry much over finances in those 
days, for my relief that mother and child had passed 
through the great ordeal was exceeding great. 

I used to walk to the Boothby Hospital, where they 
were until Allan was two weeks old, making myself a 
daily nuisance to the nurses, I have no doubt. But to 
be with my pug-nosed son and his mother, was a suffi- 
cient inducement to cause me to brave even the 
Gorgon Medusa herself. 

Throughout this year of financial struggle I never 
breathed to a soul, except to my wife and Mr. Frost, that 
the school was not highly prosperous, for so to do would 
have been suicidal to my plans. It is said that when 
Washington was in command of the Continental Army, 
he chafed sorely under the necessity of spreading broad- 
cast optimistic reports of the size and equipment of his 
army in order to keep the British from knowing the 
truth, because these very optimistic reports misled the 
people and caused them to misjudge Washington for 
not accomplishing more. 

During all the years of stress and hardship, I was. 
placed in much the same position, not even daring to 
disclose to the members of the faculty the financial 
condition of the school, lest it should discourage them, 
or by some mischance be noised abroad and reach the 
ears of the rival school and cause redoubled efforts to 
crush the youthful enterprise. 

I verily believe that in years of the school's gravest 
peril I would certainly have been forced to the wall 
financially and thus obliged to discontinue the school had 
our enemies known of their opportunity for successful 
attack. But, as it was, they labored under the impression 
that the school was a successful financial venture, and 
their opportunity unwittingly passed. 

74 



SCHOOL FINANCES REAL AND APPARENT 

As I have intimated, however, this strategic silence 
subjected me to misunderstandng from my assistants. 
At times even when the school revenue was so small 
that I had not only to serve without a salary myself, but 
also to pledge my personal credit and borrow money to 
pay the running expenses of the school, some of the fac- 
ulty murmured because they were not being paid as 
much as they deemed proper, because of the supposed 
revenue of the school. 

It is a favorite trick of the amateur financier to multi- 
ply the tuition rate per year by the maximum number of 
students who register during the year and call that 
result the school revenue, whereas if the school revenue 
reaches two-thirds of that figure the school treasurer is 
indeed fortunate. 

Not only does the uninitiated arrive at a false conclu- 
sion as to the total, but he usually errs as much in the 
opposite direction when trying to figure out the oper- 
ating expenses of the school, for he knows nothing of 
the hundred and one incidental but absolutely essential 
expenditures that total a surprisingly large drain upon 
a slender exchequer. 

But I was obliged to accept these annoying misunder- 
standings, particularly during the legislative contest, with 
as good grace as possible; for an exposure of the finan- 
cial weakness of the school would have been too great a 
risk, even in justification of myself. I have spoken of 
these matters at length, not because in the year 1907-1908 
any of my teachers were inclined to misunderstand, but 
because the policy was then inaugurated of outwitting 
the enemies of the school by refraining from correcting 
the amateur financiers in their estimates of the financial 
strength of the institution, 

75 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The School Wins Friends and "Free Advertising." 

From all viewpoints, except financial, the school 
year of 1907-1908 was a great success. The enthusiasm 
and loyalty of the students seemed to increase with 
every month of school. A school debating club was 
formed in October 1907. It so happened that Hugh 
A. Quinn, the young man referred to in the opening 
chapter of this history, and at whose suggestion I had 
embarked upon my career as a law teacher, was the 
first President of the organization, for he had resumed 
his study of law. 

I made it a point to attend the sessions of the club, 
and it became a means of staging mock trials and in- 
troducing social features quite necessary to the well 
being of the school. The club survived for two years 
and was succeeded by class organizations, some of 
them of very brief duration. 

In preparing for the 1908-1909 catalogue, which was 
issued about April 1908, I had determined upon a 
number of important features for the new year. One 
was the creation of an "Advisory Council," to which 
I could take questions of school policy. In pursuance 
of that plan I secured the following prominent men to 
serve as my official advisers : Dr. Melville M. Bigelow, 
Dean of Boston University Law School ; Judge John 
A. Bennett of the Boston Municipal Court and J. 
Merrill Boyd, Secretary of Boston University Law 
School. 

It had become necessary also to enlarge the faculty 
of the school, which I did by appointing the following 

76 



THE SCHOOL WINS FRIENDS 

additional lawyers, A. Chesley York, George L. Ells- 
worth and Thomas J. Boynton (later Attorney-Gen- 
eral of Massachusetts). 

I remember very well my first meeting with Mr. 
Boynton. At that time he had recently been mayor of 
Everett, Mass. We had a student in the school who 
was a very warm admirer of Mr. Boynton, although 
he was a Republican while Mr. Boynton was a Demo- 
crat. The singular situation of a Republican so cor- 
dially praising a Democrat, and especially because of 
the splendid things he said of him, attracted my at- 
tention and led me to believe that he would be just 
the lawyer I needed to teach Legal Ethics to my 
students. 

So I called upon Mr. Boynton in his Boston office. 
My first interview so fully confirmed all that had been 
told me of the man that I explained to him what I was 
trying to accomplish with the school, and invited him 
to join the faculty. He promptly accepted, and from 
that day forward has been a most loyal friend both to 
myself and to the school. 

I appreciated Mr. Boynton all the more after I had 
attempted to induce other prominent men to lecture 
to my students during the ensuing year, only to be 
turned down flatly by the most of them and by the 
others either ignored, or a price set for a lecture so 
far above what the school could afford to pay, that it 
was equivalent to a refusal. 

I thus learned very early that I could expect neither 
assistance nor encouragement from prominent lawyers 
or judges of Boston who belonged with, or catered to, 
the "high brow" element. My mission was the up- 
lifting of poor boys ; and it was impressed upon me 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

many times during the course of years, especially dur- 
ing the legislative contest with the "Educational Oc- 
topus," that I was doing something very wrong; that 
these young men belonged in the "lower order" in 
which they were born, and to educate them was, as 
one of the so-called "intellectuals" phrased it, three 
years ago in my presence, "like trying to turn cart 
horses into trotters." 

I defended myself on the ground that nothing better 
could be expected of me since I was born one of the 
"lower order" and was therefore a "cart horse," but 
one moreover that some of the "trotters" like himself 
seemed to be afraid to try an intellectual race with. 

I greatly appreciated, therefore, the spirit of Mr. 
Boynton, so different from other prominent lav/yers 
with whom I had come in contact. I appreciated es- 
pecially his willingness to become a member of the 
faculty of my unknown and, at that time, insignificant 
school. 

I appreciated also the kindness of Dean Bigelow and 
of Secretary Boyd of the Law School from which I 
had graduated, for in allowing their names to appear 
in the 1908-1909 catalogue as members of the Advisory 
Council they each rendered a great service to the school 
in that critical period. The friendship of Judge Ben- 
nett was also very helpful, for his office was in the 
same building with the school, and he had opportunity 
to observe what we were accomplishing. 

In issuing the catalogue that Spring I felt sure that 
the indorsement of my school, conveyed by the names 
of these prominent men, would assist very materially 
in the registration of new students, and so it proved.' 

To that date the school had never been able to se- 

78 



THE SCHOOL WINS FRIENDS 

cure any recognition from the Boston newspapers. As 
one of the editors of the Globe told me, at about that 
time, news items concerning the school would be "free 
advertising," and if I wanted advertising I must pay 
for it. But through a bit of good fortune I secured 
shortly after that some "free advertising" in a very 
unexpected way, even from the Globe itself. 

The incident occurred at the school banquet April 
30th, 1908. We had as guests on that evening Mr. 
Boynton, Judge Bennett, the late Professor A. C. Boyd 
and Secretary Boyd. I was seated at the foot of the 
table away from the rest of the speakers. One of the 
enterprising members of the banquet committee had 
sent tickets to the newspapers, and it so happened 
that a reporter for the Globe sat beside me at the foot 
of the table. This does not signify that our banquet 
would have been mentioned in the morning papers, for 
it has sometimes happened to the school that the re- 
porter who ate the heartiest was least likely to men- 
tion us in his paper next morning. 

The reporter who sat beside me noticed Judge Ben- 
nett at the head of the table and asked me what the 
judge would talk about, casually mentioning that he 
had sentenced a notorious agitator in court that day 
for incendiary utterances. I had not heard of it, but 
having been a reporter myself, I at once saw that if 
Judge Bennett should refer to the agitator it would be 
"news." 

I therefore wrote, on one of my cards, a note to 
Judge Bennett asking him to tell the company about 
the incident of the day if he thought it proper. Sure 
enough, when the Judge arose he told us he had given 
the offender "the limit" because of the nature of his 
offense. 

79 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



The next morning the Globe came out with an ac- 
count of the banquet and a long quotation from Judge 
Bennett's remarks. Other papers copied it and the 
school received a lot of "free advertising." 



80 



ASSAILED BY SUFFRAGETTES 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Assailed by Suffragettes. 

A few days after the banquet I was in conversation 
with the city editor of the Boston Journal, who took 
me to task for not notifying his paper of the banquet. 
It was easy enough to excuse myself, for the banquet 
committee had taken charge of the affair and notified 
the newspapers. I assured him that I would not have 
overlooked the Journal and gave him a glowing ac- 
count of the school and my plans for its future. 

When we parted he asked me to notify him of our 
next public function and I promised to do so. Of 
course I fully appreciated the value of news items in 
establishing the reputation of the school, but at the 
time I could not think of any occasion that would 
come for a full year when I could make use of the kind 
offices of the Journal. 

That night, however, I awoke in the "wee small" 
hours and worked out a plan that promised more pub- 
licity for the school. We had as yet no graduating 
class, but I conceived the idea of holding public exer- 
cises at the close of the school year. 

I at once got in touch with the debating club and 
outlined a plan for an amusing mock-trial, an action of 
tort for assault and battery with a soup bone, based 
upon an actual happening to one of our students who 
worked in a market. The Journal gave the affair an 

8i 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

advance "write-up" with four photographs, and the 
Boston Post did likewise, using two photographs, 
mine being one of those used in each case. 

I had engaged a hall in Tremont Temple and the ex- 
ercises were there held May i8, 1908. Reporters from 
various newspapers were present. I was the first 
speaker, followed by Mr. Boynton and Judge Oscar A. 
Marden, who later presided over the mock-trial. The 
affair was a complete success. 

My address was on a topic that I rightly divined 
would attract attention — the que^ion of co-education 
in our law school. I placed myself on record as square- 
ly against it and announced our school policy to main- 
tain classes exclusively for men. 

The newspapers came out on the following morning 
with long articles, the principal part of which con- 
cerned my remarks. "The Record" had in big head- 
lines, "Archer Would Bar Women" and the Journal 
"Jolts Co-Education at Suffolk Law School," while 
other papers had headings similar in tone. Mr. Boyn- 
ton had commented mildly on my remarks on co-edu- 
cation, so one newspaper ran three headings, "Would 
Bar Women From Men's Law School." "Dean Ar- 
cher Stirs Up Faculty to Reply." "Closing Exercises 
of Evening Law School Marked by Lively Debate as 
to Policy." 

Some papers misquoted my words and I caused cor- 
rected versions of m}^ remarks to be published the next 
day in the offending papers. This correction was brief, 
so I shall offer it in this connection to illustrate both 
the incident and the policy, for it expressed my firm 
conviction and has been adhered to by the school 
throughout its history. 

82 



ASSAILED BY SUFFRAGETTES 

DEAN ARCHER MAKES CORRECTION. 

To the Editor of the Advertiser : In view of the fact 
that the morning papers misquoted my remarks on co- 
education at the closing exercises of the Suffolk School 
of Law at Tremont Temple last evening, I wish, in 
justice to the school which I represent and to the very- 
estimable young ladies who sometimes study law, to 
make a correction. 

"I am represented as saying the following: 

"A lot of women is not conducive to progress in the 
class. Men are gallant. No instructor can teach well 
and no student can study acceptably under such a 
system. If we admitted women we would be intro- 
ducing a lowering element." 

"But I really said. 'The Suffolk School of Law aims 
to put in the way of each of its students the best possi- 
ble conditions of study. Now there are some men, and 
perhaps a large percentage, to whom the presence of a 
lady in class is not conducive to strictest application 
to the discussions of the class. Man is naturally senti- 
mental and inclined to gallantries towards the op- 
posite sex. A few such in a class will furnish amuse- 
ment for all others. They will watch the shy glances 
and miss no opportunity to tease the suspected party 
or parties. An instructor cannot hold undivided at- 
tention under such circumstances. So we feel sure 
that in admitting lady students to our classes we would 
be introducing a distracting element, that might lower 
the high standard of scholarship hitherto maintained 
by the students of the Suffolk School of Law." 

May 20, 1908. Gleason L. Archer." 

Nothing could have been more timely or valuable as 
publicity for the school. But its value as a news feat- 

83 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

ure was heightened by the fact that I was assailed by 
the suffragettes. One of the Sunday papers came out 
with a feature article, containing opinions from women 
lawyers on the issue I had raised. One of the intro- 
ductory paragraphs was as follows : 

"When Dean Gleason L. Archer of the Suffolk Law 
School came forth declaring that the presence of wom- 
en in classes attended by men is not conducive to 
study, he hardly realized the storm of adverse criticism 
that his remarks would arouse." 

It is true that I hardly realized the amount of pub- 
licity my remarks would receive. But every assault 
added to the interest taken by the public in the youth- 
ful institution. 

But a greater event was to occur within two months 
that would demonstrate emphatically the real worth 
of the school. 



84 



THE FIRST LAWYER FROM OUR SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The First Lawyer From Our School. 

The school had now been running for two years. I 
was beginning to look forward to the time when my 
students should meet the exacting test of the bar ex- 
aminations, and the success or failure of the school be 
thus publicly demonstrated. While no school should 
content itself with merely imparting sufficient knowl- 
edge to pass the bar examinations, yet it is the only 
test by which the public can estimate the worth of a 
law school. I knew from my own experience with 
day students that the young men who were attending 
my school were more firmly grounded in each subject 
than the average day student. 

But I realized that there were at least three obstacles 
to a good bar examination record for my school. The 
first, was the fact of the school's brief existence and its 
humble origin. The second, was the prejudice existing 
generally against evening students. The third, was 
the most formidable of all — the young men attending 
my school had very little general education. There 
was only one man in the Junior Class who was even 
a high school graduate, the rest of them having no 
more than grammar school training. Whatever record 
the school might make in the bar examinations must 
be made by these untrained men in competition with 
college graduates from Harvard Law School and col- 

85 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

lege and high school men from the other law schools. 

I was well aware that any law school can train a 
college graduate, for the well-disciplined mind can as- 
similate knowledge under the most indifferent system 
of instruction, but to take the "raw material," as our 
students might be termed, and train them by evening 
instruction so that they might make a creditable record 
in competition with splendidly educated day students 
who had all their time for study, is the severest kind of 
a test for any institution. 

So when, in June, 1908, Roland E. Brown, of the 
Junior Class approached me for certification to the bar 
examiners for the time he had been studying, I was 
quite aghast at the idea of his taking the bar examina- 
tion. While I knew that day students sometimes 
passed the bar after two years' study, (I had accom- 
plished the feat myself) the cases were rare. In fact, 
I knew of college graduates who had finished the 
three-year law course and then been obliged to take 
the bar examinations five or six times before passing. 
Some of my own classmates in the law school were 
still taking the bar examinations in 1908. 

But Brown, a machinist by trade, with only a com^ 
mon school education and two years of night training 
in law, could not hope for success. Still I had a deep 
sympathy for him. I cautioned him not to be disap- 
pointed if he failed, for there was not one chance in 
ten of his passing the bar examination. But I gave 
him the certificate of two years' study. 

It is needless to say that when, on July 23, 1908, the 
list of successful candidates for admission to the bar 
was published and I saw the name of Roland E. Brown 
upon it, I was as happy as Brown himself. It was a 

86 



THE FIRST LAWYER FROM OUR SCHOOL 

wonderful achievement for the school. I at once saw 
that if the fact became known, it would mean a tre- 
mendous boom for the institution. 

My own experience as a newspaper man led me to 
adopt the very expedient that would make real news of 
the incident. I immediately arranged a reception in 
Brown's honor at my house and gave the story to the 
Journal. 

The next morning I arose very early and went out to 
a news-stand for the "Journal." The eagerness with 
which I scanned the paper was rewarded, for in a very 
conspicuous place was Brown's picture, accompanied 
by the following article. 

10 YEAR STUDENT EEGOIUIES LAWYEe 



Dean Archer, Who Advised Roland Brown to Wait, 

to Give Reception in Honor at the Archer 

Residence. 



"The old, old story of T told you so,' has a modern 
variation. Roland E. Brown of the Junior Class of the 
Suffolk School of Law wanted to take the bar exami- 
nation in June of this year. Dean Archer told him not 
to be so rash, that he would fail without doubt and his 
$15. would be thrown away. 

"But Brown had confidence — lots of it, and he took 
the examination. Now he is smiling, for the list of 
successful candidates that came out yesterday had 
"Brown" upon it in big letters. It also transpires that 
Dean Archer has gracefully receded from his position, 

87 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

for it is announced that a reception in Brown's honor 
will be given at the home of the Dean next Monday 
evening. 

"Brown's record in passing the bar examination 
after but two years of attendance at an evening school 
is a remarkable one." 

Several other newspapers gave the aflfair a news 
item, and the Globe, which not long before had refused 
to give the school "free advertising," sent a reporter to 
me to get further details for a longer article, which 
was later published with Brown's picture. 

The reception was held according to schedule in the 
old ^hool room at 6 Alpine street, where Brown had 
begun his studies in December, 1916, as related in an 
earlier chapter of this history. 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Good Samaritan. 

Some time prior to the bar examinations the ques- 
tion of a suitable school seal had been under consid- 
eration. Even while the school was in Roxbury the 
demand for some visible insignia to be worn by the 
students had resulted in a monogram pin in the form 
of a letter "A" with "law school" upon it. Now that 
the school name had changed from Archer Law School 
to Suffolk School of Law, a new pin became necessary. 

We had spent some time trying to devise a suitable 
design for a seal. A firm of jewellers were also work- 
ing upon plans to submit to me. But one day in June 
1908, as I was sitting at my desk, the present school 
seal flashed as a mental picture across my mind. I 
sketched it out hurriedly on the back of an envelope 
exactly as it exists today, even to the motto, scales of 
justice, etc., so vividly had the picture impressed itself 
upon me. 

Taking it immediately to the jewelers' to compare 
with their designs, we at once decided upon it and I 
ordered the die made for school jewelry. The first 
tangible reproduction of the school seal is on the gold 
pin that I have worn ever since, the first pin made 
from that die. 

Shortly after, I had a cut made of the design and 
ordered the first printed matter to bear the imprint of 

89 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

the seal — a stock of letter heads, with the seal in the 
left hand corner. 

It so happened that the first use of the new letter 
heads was called forth by Brown's success in the bar 
examinations, for I purchased several hundred copies 
of the issue of the Journal containing the article, 
clipped them and sent out letters to all the men on my 
mailing list, with a clipping enclosed. 

I was my own office boy and stenographer. I well 
remember how I labored in my dingy little office to 
get out that issue of letters. I used an old style dia- 
phram mimeograph. If I remember correctly, some of 
the men who afterward became students in the school, 
having read of Brown's success in the papers, called 
at the office and found me in the humble employment 
of printer's devil — and inquired for the Dean ! 

But I was already somewhat used to those things, 
for lack of funds to hire help obliged me personally to 
act as janitor, office boy, stenographer and even car- 
penter during the years of the school's adversity. 

No immediate response resulted from the letters, but 
I felt very confident that results would be forthcoming. 
My greatest worriment was that of financing the 
school until opening time. Quite a number of men 
were still owing tuition. I sent out a special appeal 
to the delinquents, oflfering a liberal discount upon 
their bills if they would raise the money and pay up; 
but very few of them responded, less than forty dollars 
being paid. 

Reduced to the last extremity, and unable to pay 
either the rent, or finance an advertising campaign, I 
was obliged to go to Mr. Frost for a loan. This neces- 
sity was especially distasteful because of the fact that 

90 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN 

after I graduated from the law school Mr. Frost had 
astonished me, in spite of all his wonderful kindness 
previously, by saying that the loans which he had made 
to me while I was a student, and which I hoped 
shortly to begin to repay, were not loans but gifts. 
Very naturally, therefore, I hesitated at asking for 
more loans, lest it appear that I was of the barnacle 
variety that repays one kindness by begging for an- 
other. 

However, I went to him and stated my case, and he 
very promptly loaned me two hundred dollars. With 
renewed courage I set about the advertising campaign. 
By September i, 1908, thirteen new men had regis- 
tered. The prospects were indeed rosy, and I began to 
feel confident that my Freshman Class would exceed 
both the upper classes combined. 

But it was a long, weary season. I was on duty 
day and evening at the office, until I felt hardly ac- 
quainted with my baby boy, for he was always asleep 
when I was at the house. But stragglers came in with 
encouraging frequency, and when opening day arrived 
I had already registered thirty-five new men. 

To say that I was relieved and happy is to put it 
mildly. Knowing that I had no lecture rooms at 53 
Tremont Street large enough to accommodate the 
crowd that was likely to attend the opening lecture, I 
engaged Social Hall in Tremont Temple for opening 
night. 



91 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXI. 

A Great Boom for the School. 

\ 
I 

The school opened for the year on the evening oi 
September 28, 1908, and opening night is always a 
very strenuous occasion for me. This proved to be an. 
especially busy evening, for a great many Freshmen 
came to my office before going to Tremont Temple, 
and many of the upper classmen desired to see me 
personally, before the lectures began. Rumors kept 
pouring in that a large number of Freshmen were 
gathering in Social Hall, for some of the upper class 
men called there out of curiosity before coming to the 
school. 

When I arrived at the hall to deliver the opening 
lecture I was overjoyed to find that the rumors were 
well founded. A far larger crowd than I had expected, 
awaited my appearance. 

The men eyed me with a good deal of curiosity, as 
I opened my green bag and laid out on the lecture 
table my lecture notes, application blanks, paper, in- 
dex-cards, etc., each to be used later in the evening. 
But I was as interested to see my new pupils as they 
to see me, and it was a very gratifying sight indeed 
— so many intelligent, earnest faces. 

The lecture passed off with great apparent success. 
When I distributed the index-cards for the names, 
addresses and division, whether early or late, nearly 

92 



A GREAT BOOM FOR THE SCHOOL 

every man in the room signed his card. I organized 
the class into three divisions, and appointed the lec- 
ture rooms and evenings for those divisions. 

Luckily for me, the building at 53 Tremont Street 
was nearly tenantless, so I had secured the fourth 
floor and a large room on the third floor opposite the 
school office and library. This great influx of students 
could, therefore, be handled without difficulty. 

Little did I realize that not until 1914 would I meet 
a larger class of Freshmen, nor that these men who 
had just entered would participate as students in the 
first great legislative campaign for power to confer 
degrees, But I returned home that night, happy in 
the belief that the school had passed through its 
period of greatest adversity and trial, and that the 
way from this time forward would be steadily upward 
from one success to another, little dreaming of the 
Educational Octopus whose tentacles were even now 
creeping uneasily in my direction. The school had at 
a single bound became a factor unwelcome to the 
intrenched monopoly of the educational world. 

By the close of the first week sixty-two Freshmen 
had registered. This number was later increased un- 
til more than seventy new students were enrolled. 
The lecture rooms at 53 Tremont Street were taxed 
to their utmost. 

But in the midst of my busy labors troubles arose 
in the Senior Class, the same class that had mutinied 
the year before. The cause was not far to seek. In 
a moment of unwise compassion I had allowed one 
of the ringleaders of the trouble of the previous year 
to return to the school. He had seemed properly 
chastened and repentant, and I thought that his pun- 
ishment had been severe enough. 



93 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

But he had no sooner returned than he began to 
foment trouble, secretly endeavoring to poison the 
minds of the students, not only in his own class but 
in the lower classes as well. 

The first rumors of trouble had already come in 
when an event occurred that brought matters to a 
climax and roused my wrath as it has seldom been 
roused by a student. We had in those days a common 
bulletin board without a glass door in front. I came 
into the corridor one evening just in time to see three 
seniors scurry away from the bulletin board in a 
manner that aroused my suspicion. 

I had that day posted a notice with reference to 
class meetings, stating among other things that stu- 
dents would "be permitted" to use lecture rooms by 
obtaining permission from the Dean. The word "per- 
mitted" had been heavily underscored and something 
had been printed in pencil underneath the notice, the 
nature of which I have now forgotten but which was 
a malicious insult to me and my authority as Dean. 
I knew immediately that one of three possible culprits 
had committed the act. 

I met the challenge of my authority by posting an 
exact copy of the mutilated notice, together with a 
second notice to the effect that any student who there- 
after in any way molested a notice on the bulletin 
board would be expelled from the school. I then 
visited the senior lecture room and informed the class 
of the outrage, notifying them that unless the per- 
petrators of the insult apologized to me within 
twenty-four hours I would expel the suspected par- 
ties from the school. 

On the following day I wrote a letter of expulson 
for each of the three men; for I had not yet heard 

94 



A GREAT BOOM FOR THE SCHOOL 

from them. But desiring to know if possible the one 
who had done the printing I grilled each of the sus- 
pected parties, all of whom denied the act. Finally, 
the one that I least suspected, and concerning whom 
I would never have entertained the slightest suspicion 
had I not seen him with the others, confessed that 
he had done the printing and humbly apologized. 

It was somewhat of a shock to me, for this man 
had appeared to be the most loyal of all my students 
and had certainly enjoyed my confidence more than 
any other student, either before or since. But he had 
forfeited that confidence now. I believe that the 
shame that he felt caused him to leave the school, 
for he shortly thereafter withdrew as a student. 

But he had given a clue to the real trouble maker 
and this clue pointed straight to the very man who 
had been the ringleader of the previous insurrection. 
I had already interviewed the man, for he was one of 
the three suspects, but he had denied complicity in 
the affair. 

Not wishing to have trouble with the man at the 
school, I called at his office to have it out with him 
in private. 

Denials and evasions were of no use this time, for 
I was determined to have the truth. My experience 
as a cross examiner had taught me that one of the 
surest ways to obtain real information as to a per- 
son's motives was to get that person excited and mad 
clear through. This I proceeded to do and I ob- 
tained the information that I have mentioned in 
Chapter XV, but not in connected form, for I gath- 
ered it from various wrathful taunts that escaped 
from his lips. 

I had thus again reaped trouble from an imaginary 



Vo 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

slight and from the same individual. A few months 
later when his class was graduating he demanded his 
diploma and threatened to ruin the school if he did 
not get it. Needless to say, he did not get his diploma. 



96 



^Y FIRST LAW WRITING 



CHAPTER XXII. 

My First Law Writing and the Traveler Contest. 

The great increase in students had wrought a cor- 
responding increase in my duties at the school. I soon 
found myself facing a difficult problem — that of 
whether I should or could continue my law practice. 
When I started the school I had not the remotest 
idea of eventually giving up my practice, for I liked 
court work — especially the examination and cross ex- 
amination of witnesses. 

But I soon came to the point where it was apparent 
to me that I would eventually have to choose between 
the school and law practice, for I could not hope to 
divide my attention and perform either task to the 
best of my ability. Then, too, it occurred to me that 
it would be belittling the school for the Dean of a law 
school to go into court and try ordinary cases, pos- 
sibly against some of his own graduates. 

In December, 1908 when the school work became so 
burdensome, I reached the final conclusion that I 
would close up my law practice and devote my entire 
time to the school. This is a decision that doubtless 
insured the permanence of the school, but the time 
later came when I regretted that I had not a law prac- 
tice to fall back upon. 

I have previously mentioned the mock trials that 
were held at the school. Co-incident with my deci- 

97 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

sion to devote my entire time to the school I began 
to extend the scope of the work of the school courts. 
The jury was now drawn from the Freshman class 
and thus the trials were participated in by all the 
school. 

I presided as judge at all trials, but was greatly 
burdened by the fact that each trial meant instruction 
of new men in the necessary routine of the court 
room. The necessity of means of imparting this 
knowledge impressed itself upon me more and more 
as weeks passed. 

I finally decided to prepare a scrap book (which is 
still in my possession) of writs in common use with 
full instructions concerning them. When this was 
partially completed I realized that it would meet only 
a part of the difficulty ; so I began to draft instruc- 
tions for the complete handling of a law suit. My 
intention then was to prepare a mere booklet. But 
as I outlined the topics to be covered, I saw at once 
that a booklet would never do. 

Without any reasonable hope of the success of the 
venture I began on January 26, 1909, what was to 
prove my first law book, "Law Office and Court Pro- 
cedure." Like the beginning of the school, it did not 
impress me at first as of any great significance in 
my life ; and I pursued its preparation in odd mo- 
ments, either at the office or at my home. My wife 
has always said that I am never happy unless I am 
writing, and perhaps that is true, for there has rarely 
been a month in the past ten years that has not seen 
my pen busy at something. But I thoroughly en- 
joyed law writing, and perhaps the very fact that I 
wrote chapter after chapter of this book with so little 
effort was what led me to esteem it so lightly. I have 

98 



MY FIRST LAW WRITING 

been lately reminded that my customary excuse in 
the winter of 1909 for the time I was devoting to the 
book was this, "Of course I never expect it to be 
published ; but it will be useful for the students." 

At about the time I began the preparation of the 
material for the book, an event occurred that soon 
brought about a decided change in the school's afifairs. 
The building at 53 Tremont Street changed owner- 
ship. I was notified of the fact by the agent of the 
new owners, and requested to confer with him as to 
tenancy of the additional space which the school was 
using for lecture rooms. 

Somewhat disturbed over this new development, I 
met the agent and talked over the situation. A few 
days later I received notice from him of a consider- 
able increase in our rental. I was naturally very in- 
dignant at what I considered a hold up, and I re- 
torted by threatening to remove from the building. 
But he evidently considered my threat empty words, 
perhaps shrewdly believing that I could not secure 
adequate quarters in any other desirable location, es- 
pecially during the school year. 

Prior to this break with the agent I had been well 
satisfied with the school home, for it is one of my 
characteristics to look on the bright side of any situa- 
tion in which I find myself. But now that this 
trouble had arisen, I could see a dozen reasons why I 
should remove the school to better quarters. 

Fortunately for me an organization that had oc- 
cupied considerable space in Tremont Temple was 
about to remove to the newly completed Ford Build- 
ing after the termination of a long lease. The rental 
of the place would be considerably in excess even of 
the increased rental at 53 Tremont Street ; but I could 

99 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

easily see that the superior accommodations and sur- 
roundings might fully justify the change. 

It was a matter of extreme regret to me however 
that just as the school was getting onto its feet finan- 
cially it should again be thrown into monetary diffi- 
culties. I could readily foresee that the revenue for 
the year, slightly in excess of $3500, would be inade- 
quate for the school needs ; especially if we removed 
to Tremont Temple, with a heavy rental during the 
summer months. Such removal also involved a con- 
siderable outlay for furniture, books and book cases, 
for we had been having the use of Mr. Stone's law 
library and furniture, and naturally could not take his 
property with us to Tremont Temple. 

I have previously mentioned two loans from Mr. 
Frost of $200 each made to me in the school's behalf. 
At the time this difficulty developed I had paid one of 
them and a part of another. I now paid the second 
one, and consulted with Mr. Frost as to the advisa- 
bility of the change. 

He met me by appointment at Tremont Temple 
and we together examined the premises, both of the 
prospective home and the present one. His decision 
was heartily in favor of the change, and he asked me 
for an estimate of the cost of equipment of the new 
home, which I later gave him, and he loaned me $500 
for that purpose. 

So I closed the matter with the Tremont Temple 
people and, with a great deal of satisfaction, served 
notice on the agent of the new proprietor of 53 
Tremont Street that I should terminate my tenancy 
on March i, 1909. We were occupying as tenants at 
will and one month's notice was sufficient. 

Then followed so strenuous a season for me that 



100 



MY FIRST LAW WRITING 

my law book manuscript was laid aside. I had al- 
ready been negotiating with Mr. John H. Fahey, now 
President of the United States Chamber of Com- 
merce, but then publisher of the Boston Traveler, for 
a voting contest to be conducted by his paper in which 
scholarships in the Suffolk School of Law were to be 
offered as premiums. 

Mr, Fahey went about the matter cautiously, but I 
convinced him of the merits of my school, and on Feb- 
ruary 24th, 1909, a formal contract was signed, under 
the terms of which six scholarships were to be 
awarded by the Traveler to the successful contestants. 

The Traveler had already begun a series of articles 
descriptive of the school. Our contemplated removal 
to larger quarters was now worked up to the best 
advantage in the columns of the Traveler. 

At this time, also, I decided to institute a loan li- 
brary of case books for the use of the students, and 
the first announcement of the plan was made by the 
Traveler. 

It will be remembered in July, 1908, Roland E. 
Brown of the Junior Class had passed the bar exam- 
inations and thereby won great credit for the school. 
The next examination was held in January 1909, and 
in this examination also a Suffolk man was successful 
— Carl Collar, then in his senior year. Thus, out of a 
class of five seniors, (for that is all that now survived 
of the original number), two were already members 
of the bar. The Traveler gave the school a splendid 
write-up on this latest achievement. 

The scholarship contest opened March i, 1909, 
and ran for two months with about fifty young men 
as contestants. The advertising value to the school 
of this contest was incalculable, but no doubt a mat- 
ter of extreme concern to the other schools. 

lOI 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

As I look back upon it now I consider the Traveler 
contest to have been one of the greatest strokes of 
success that I had won up to that time. When the 
contest opened the school was practically unknown; 
but after the two months' contest it was known to 
every reader of the Traveler. 

The immediate effect of the contest was, however, 
disappointing to me. Very few of the unsuccessful 
candidates ever entered the school, doubtless feeling 
aggrieved because of their failure. Another result 
was to alarm the Octopus and awaken the rival 
schools to hostile action more or less concerted, but 
after all, this was bound to come as soon as the school 
had reached a degree of prominence in the public 
eye. 



)] 



t 



102 



HOSTILITY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Hostility of Boston University. 

The first evidence of hostility was manifested by- 
Boston University, my Alma Mater. Because in later 
years, during the legislative contest, classmates of 
mine from the law school who were members of the 
legislature and who fought viciously to kill the Suf- 
folk Law School Charter, falsely charged me with in- 
gratitude to my Alma Mater, I shall here for the first 
time set forth the facts : 

No graduate of Boston University could have been 
more loyal than was I for several years after my 
graduation. The teachers in the law department 
were, many of them, very firm friends of mine and the 
most cordial relations existed between us. I was fre- 
quently in conference with Secretary Boyd on ad- 
ministrative problems as they arose in my school. I 
am sure that those in authority at the law school felt 
that since the Y. M. C. A. Law School was the pro- 
tege of Harvard Law School (considered by many 
Boston University graduates to have been encour- 
aged by Harvard for the express purpose of injuring 
Boston University Law School), so my law school 
whose founder and all its teachers were Boston Uni- 
versity men should be regarded by them with favor. 

I had heard more than once the expression "When 
our own graduates are doing so well it reflects honor 

103 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Upon the University, and we at the law school ought 
to give them the glad hand." For these sentiments 
and for the active interest in my school manifested 
by Dean Bigelow, Secretary Boyd and Professor 
Boyd, I felt a warm sense of gratitude and was will- 
ing to further the interests of the University even at 
the expense of my own institution. As an evidence 
of that I will offer portions of a long letter which I 
wrote to Dean Bigelow January 7th, 1908. 

Dear Dr. Bigelow : — 

Since our interview of Saturday, I have been think- 
ing very seriously of the suggestions you made in re- 
gard to sending our men who desire academic de- 
grees to the Boston University School of Law for 
their final training. If we can come to some under- 
standing as to the credit that such men will be given 
for subjects taken in the Suffolk School of Law I 
think we may be able to arrange other details. * * * 

If your Faculty would allow students who have 
passed examinations in a course in this school with a 
mark of 80 or 85 per cent to enter B. U. Law School 
for advanced standing without examinations on such 
subject or subjects, it would be an inspiration to a 
student here to put forth his best efforts. If in cer- 
tain subjects he did not attain that mark, he should 
be required to take examinations at your school in the 
regular examinations on that subject Many students 
who cannot afford to take a three year course at B. U. 
Law School could manage to take their final year 
there. * * * Of course your Faculty would naturally 
desire to know what training a prospective candidate 
for a degree might be getting in this school. Per- 
haps an advisory board, composed of yourself. Sec- 
retary Boyd and Professor Boyd * * * might solve 

104 



HOSTILITY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY 

the difficulty, and you could keep in touch with just 
what is being done here without any additional bur- 
den of administration being imposed upon you. * * * 
Some law schools, as you know, have evening de- 
partments, but with this arrangement your school 
would secure all the advantages to be obtained there- 
from, without any of its resulting disadvantages. 
* * * I trust that we can form some sort of an al- 
liance. 

Sincerely yours, 
(Signed) GLEASON L. ARCHER. 

I was later informed that the Trustees would not 
agree to such an arrangement. But the interest and 
good will of the law department is evidenced by the 
fact that the very "advisory board" advocated by the 
letter was shortly afterward formed (as has been noted 
in an earlier chapter) . 

At the time the Traveler Scholarship Contest opened, 
March 1909, this "advisory council" was still in opera- 
tion. About March 8th, 1909, I called at the college 
department to see Professor Black who was to speak 
at our Dedication Exercises. While waiting for him, 
I got into conversation with one of the officials of the 
college. 

He had already noticed the Scholarship contest, for 
it had been running now for ten days, and his attitude 
was particularly cold and hostile. 

"What kind of a deal have you got on with the 
Traveler?" he asked me in a manner which I resented, 
and I made no pretence of concealing my resentment. 
But his next question was even more astonishing. 

"Wasn't the Y. M. C. A. Law School doing the 
thing well enough without your butting into the field?" 

105 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

My acquaintance with this man while I was a 
student in colleg-e had never been anything but slight, 
for he was not then an executive officer. But while in 
the law school he had urged me to complete my col- 
lege course, which for financial reasons I was unable 
to do. This was my first meeting with him since that 
date. 

But at his allusion to the Y. M. C. A. Law School, 
and his evident partisanship in the matter (I did not 
then know that he was affiliated with the organization, 
nor realize that the University with its devout Meth- 
odist Trustees would consider my rivalry with an 
organization of the Young Men's Qiristian Associa- 
tion as an attack upon religion itself) I replied with 
some show of spirit that my school had the most 
cordial approval of those who were in position to 
judge its merits — the Dean, Secretary and professors 
of the law department of Boston University. I gave 
him a catalogue of the school and left his office. I 
have never stepped over the threshold of the college 
department of Boston University since. 

It will be remembered that this interview occurred 
on March 8th, 1909. One week later, March 15th, 
1909, I received the following self-explanatory letter 
from Dean Bigelow. 

Boston University Law School, Ashburton Place, 
Office of the Dean, March 15, 1909. 
My Dear Archer, — 

Certain friends of the University are sensitive to 
my appearing to take any part between the two Even- 
ing Law Schools, or appearing in any way in connec- 
tion with either of them. Will you please therefore 
drop my name at the close of the current year? 

106 



HOSTILITY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY 

You will understand of course that this does not 
import any want of confidence in you and your asso- 
ciates ; it only means that the part for me to take is 
one of pefect neutrality. 

Yours very truly, 

(Signed) Melville M. Bigelow. 

I at once waited upon Secretary Boyd, and I do not 
think it is a betrayal of confidence to say that I found 
him in an extremely belligerent mood, not toward me 
but toward certain high officials of the University. I 
later learned that they had been at the law school and 
a merry row had taken place. But those in high au- 
thority had prevailed and Dean Bigelow and Secretary 
Boyd had been forced to withdraw ?rom the advisory 
council of my school. Professor Boyd had also been 
notified to quit our board of visitors. 

To say that this calamity was a blow to me, is to 
put it mildly, for I knew that their withdrawal would 
be interpreted by the public as an evidence of lack of 
confidence in my school. However, I survived the 
shock, as I have many another. Later developments in 
the estrangement between myself and Boston Univer- 
sity will be related in connection with other events 
later in this history. But to return to school affairs. 



107 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Removal to Tremont Temple. 

The last two weeks of February, 1909, were occupied 
by many duties having to do with the removal of the 
school. New floors were laid in the school headquar- 
ters. Much of our furniture, being purchased new, 
was delivered by the dealers at different intervals and 
the final transfer of the school possessions took place 
during the spring recess which occurred during the 
last week in February. 

I well remember my last visit to the dismantled 
offices and lecture rooms at 53 Tremont Street, after 
the movers had completed their work. It is always a 
melancholy thing to survey scenes that, from long 
familiarity, have impressed themselves upon one's life. 
In these offices the gloomiest and darkest days of my 
life had been passed, as well as days of success and 
triumph. 

Within six weeks I had passed, because of circum- 
stances suddenly arising, from a state of complete con- 
tentment with my surroundings to the actual volun- 
tary severing of all connection with that place; had 
signed a three-year lease and removed to a building 
where the rent alone, for the space that I should need, 
would very nearly equal the gross tuition receipts of 
the previous year. I wondered if I had made a mis- 
take ; and, as I paced the empty corridor, I prayed 

108 



J 



REMOVAL TO TREMONT TEMPLE 

very earnestly that I might be guided wisely and 
strengthened for anything that might befall me, so 
that if the school were thereafter removed from Tre- 
mont Temple it might be only because of growth and 
prosperity of the school and not because of failure. 

The admiration and delight of the students when 
they surveyed the new home of the school opening 
night of the Spring Term, March i, 1909, was un- 
bounded. The change from the gloomy, gas lighted 
rooms at the former home, to the tinted walls, polished 
oak woodwork and electric illumination of the school's 
new home was indeed great. Heretofore the men had 
climbed the stairs to their lecture rooms, but elevators 
were now the means of transit. In a measure, I was 
reassured for the risk I had taken. 

My office work, because of the scholarship contest, 
had greatly increased, and I was obliged to engage a 
stenographer, Miss Mary Hines of Wakefield, who 
proved to be a very trustworthy and efficient young 
lady. The change to Tremont Temple and the opening 
of the loan library, made necessary the employment of 
a regular librarian. The first librarian was Henry 
Rossiter Snyder, then a student in the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, but now Paymaster in the 
United States Navy. 

In celebration of our new home, it was resolved to 
hold a sort of Dedication Exercises, and the date was 
set for Thursday evening, March 11, 1909. As will be 
remembered, it was concerning these exercises that I 
had called at the College Department of Boston Uni- 
versity as related in the previous chapter. 

The exercises were held in Lorimer Hall and passed 
off very successfully. Judge Bennett, Mr. Boynton 



109 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

and Professor Frank L. Simpson of Boston University- 
Law School followed me as speakers. We had a large 
and enthusiastic audience. 

The month of April was marked by the holding of 
one of the most successful banquets that the school 
has ever known. Harvey N. Shepard, Thomas J. 
Boynton, Arthur W. Dolan, Register of Probate of 
Suffolk County, Judge Charles M. Bruce and myself, 
being the speakers. 

My address was quite widely quoted, because of a 
sentiment expressed on the subject of the drinking of 
liquor at school banquets. I had given orders that no 
liquor of any kind should be served at the banquet, 
and in explanation of the order I had said: 

"If the only duty of this school were the merely in- 
tellectual training of our students, I should not attempt 
to exercise any censorship over the school banquet. 
But we believe there is a higher duty than mere in- 
tellectual training. We should surround our students 
with influences that make for ethical development as 
well. I am aware that this idea is completely lost 
sight of in some of the largest and most powerful in- 
stitutions of learning in this country, but nevertheless 
it does not abate our duty in the slightest degree. Many 
of these young men have never touched their first 
glass. Far be it from us to place in their way any 
temptation; for a banquet is an occasion when it is 
easy to take that first glass." 

As the result of the publicity given these sentiments, 
unusual at that time — before the present great tem- 
perance movement had started, I received many let- 
ters of congratulation and commendation for my ac- 
tion. 

lie 



REMOVAL TO TREMONT TEMPLE 

The students accepted the dictum without question ; 
and it is one of my proudest boasts concerning the 
school, that no liquor was ever sensed at a school ban- 
quet since the institution was founded. No doubt the 
students have found me more or less of a crank on 
the topic of temperance ; for I never miss an opportu- 
nity to lecture them upon it and have on different oc- 
casions, with very good effect, threatened to expel 
students for coming into the class Avith liquor on their 
breath. 

But I firmly believe that one of the chief reasons for 
the success of the school has been the high standards 
of conduct as well as of scholarship that we have ex- 
acted of our students. If there is one sentiment more 
than any other that we have constantly impressed 
upon them, it is that in order to win success a man 
must first prove himself worthy of success ; that vice 
and immorality are incompatible with high achieve- 
ment. 



Ill 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Y. M. C. A. Ethics. 

At about this time I learned that the Board of Bar 
Examiners were contemplating a change in respect to 
the period of study required of candidates for admis- 
sion to the bar. Up to that time, anyone could take 
the bar examinations, irrespective of his period of 
study. After a conference with Mr. Bailey, the chair- 
man of the Board of Bar Examiners, I decided to 
change our school curriculum from a three year to a 
four year course. 

I had already become convinced that a four year 
course was essential to properly train evening stu- 
dents, but I had difficulty to persuade our students to 
study even three years, without taking bar examina- 
tions. Once the bar examination bee begins to buzz 
in a student's ear he ceases to be a well balanced stu- 
dent, for he will neglect his regular work to study sub- 
jects not yet taken, and sometimes fails in his class 
work. He is in a state of feverish uncertainty. If he 
passes the bar before finishing his law study the 
chances are very strong that he will never complete 
his course — especially if the school cannot confer de- 
grees, as was the case with my school at that time. 

But if he fails in the attempt he never settles down 
to really good school work again, for he begins immedi- 
ately another feverish attempt to prepare for the next 

112 



Y. M. C. A. ETHICS 

examination. So when the Bar Examiners proposed to 
refuse to examine men who had not studied the equiva- 
lent of three full years in a day school, I welcomed the 
opportunity to lengthen our course to four years, 
although I realized that it would mean a considerable 
loss of students. 

This change, meaning a loss of revenue in the face of 
greatly increased school expenses in Tremont Temple 
made necessary an increase of tuition if the school were 
to continue. I fully realized that the advance in tuition 
would also cause a falling off in attendance. 

In the 1909- 19 lo catalogue, which was issued in June, 
1909, I announced the new home of the school, the new 
loan library, the change of tuition to $60 a year (not 
applying at all to students then enrolled, for whom the 
$45 rate continued) and the four year course of instruc- 
tion. 

If I had been concerned over the outlook for students 
in the following September, I was more concerned over 
a new development. The Y. M. C. A. Law School, 
alarmed at the growth of the Suffolk School of Law, had 
put over their first great competition "stunt." 

Hitherto they had gotten out a blue vest-pocket folder, 
in lieu of a catalogue, but the catalogues issued by my 
school caused them to issue a catalogue also. In the 
back of their catalogue, however, they had a lot of testi- 
monials — patent medicine style — which purported to 
show the esteem in which the Y. M. C. A. Law School 
was held in the community. 

There were letters from John L. Bates, John D. Long, 
Louis Brandeis and Samuel J. Elder, indorsing the 
educational work of the Boston Y. M. C. A., but not 
one of them referred to the law school. I saw that 
at once ; but I also saw the unworthy deception upon 

"3 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

prospective students that would surely be practiced 
by their presence in the law school catalogue under 
the heading, "Opinions o£ leading members of the 
bar." 

There were two other letters that did refer to the 
law school, but one of them was written by one of the 
teachers in the Y. M. C. A. law school. The other, and 
the very first one in the list, made my heart sink within 
me, for it was from Hollis R. Bailey, chairman of the 
Board of Bar Examiners, commending their school, and 
especially advising them to maintain a four year course. 

The tremendous value of such seeming partisanship 
on the part of the Chairmxan of the Examining Board 
was at once manifest, for my own students began to 
murmur bitterly that Mr. Bailey ought not to take 
sides between the two schools. There was a clause in 
bis letter which could be construed as a slap at the 
Sufifolk School of Law. I learned from my own stu- 
dents that friends of theirs, who had intended to come 
to the Suffolk School of Law in the fall, were going to 
the Y. M. C. A. because they wanted to pass the bar 
examinations and could not afford to antagonize Mr. 
Bailey by going to any other evening school. 

Had I known Mr. Bailey as well then as I did later, 
I should have blocked the Y. M. C. A. by going to him 
directly with the matter. 

In order that the reader may see at this point what 
an extraordinary method of competition the Y. M. C. 
A. Law School authorities were employing, I will state 
that two years later, after I had seen my school dwindle 
to a total attendance of fifty-five students, I reproached 
Mr. Bailey for taking sides, and found him totally una- 
ware of the existence of the letter or how it was being 
used. 

114 



Y. M. C. A. ETHICS 

He then discovered that he had written it two years 
before rny school was founded, in 1904, when the Y. M. 
C. A. Law School was trying to secure power to confer 
degrees. But the pious gentleman who decided to use 
it in the catalogue accidentally omitted the date, thus 
making it appear to be a current letter of a partisan 
nature of tremendous value as a weapon of competition. 
Mr. Bailey thereupon ordered them to discontinue it in 
their catalogue. 



IIS 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

My First Law Book. 

The summer of 1909 was not without its triumphs, 
however. Because of the undoubted influence that the 
event had upon the survival of the school through all the 
Stormy days that were to come, I shall take time in 
^is connection to relate the circumstances under which 
my first attempts at law writing bore fruit in the form of 
my first book. Without this book and those that fol- 
lowed it, and the standing that they gave me and my 
school, we could never have won our legislative fight, 
especially during the first year. 

This book it was that established my reputation more 
than any of the others ; for at the time of the legislative 
contest it was already being used by the students of Yale 
Law School, Harvard Law School, Boston University 
Law, and even in the Y. M. C. A. Law School, much as 
they hated me and my school, (as one of their graduates 
in the legislature picturesquely phrased it to me, "I have 
nothing but praise for your book, but to h — with your 
school.") So when on the floor of the house, in 1912, 
my school was attacked as an unknown quantity, whose 
Dean was an inexperienced "boy," the existence of my 
books, and the splendid indorsements they had received, 
became the theme for the winning debate on our side. 

I have already related how I began to write the manu- 
script and finally laid it aside because of the strenuous 

116 



MY FIRST LAW BOOK 

days of the removal to Tremont Temple, and the begin- 
ning of the scholarship contest. But after things had 
settled down into normal channels I resumed my law 
writing. 

When I had prepared the first few chapters, I saw 
the futility of attempting to print it by means of a 
mimeograph, and I knew that the expense of printing 
it in the ordinary way would be prohibitive. So, with 
what manuscript I had prepared, and with my outline 
of the contents of the proposed book, I called upon 
Little, Brown & Company, then in their old building on 
Washington Street. 

If I remember correctly, it was the late Mr, Mclntyre, 
of the firm, who granted me the first interview. They 
were all busy at the time, and, while h€ did not say so, I 
felt that it was sheer kindness on his part that led him 
to even listen to me (I was afterward informed by the 
representative of another publishing house to whom I 
mentioned that I was preparing a text book, that he was 
very sure that his house would not care to examine the 
manuscript), for I was but twenty-eight at the time, and 
less than three years in practice. 

However, his kindly amusement soon gave way to 
earnest attention. I explained the scope of the work 
and read him all that seemed necessary to give him an 
idea of the text. When I had finished, he enquired how 
soon I could complete the manuscript. I replied that by 
August I could have it ready, so he requested me to 
submit the work to him as soon as I had completed it. 

Greatly encouraged by this interview, I fell to work 
wth renewed zeal, and, true to my words, submitted the 
manuscript in August, 1909. I have in my possession 
the original manuscript from which my stenographer 

117 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

typewrote the others. It is interesting to note that I 
changed the name of the book four times. First it was, 
"The Young Lawyer's Handbook;" next, "The Young 
Lawyer's Guide;" then I wrote again on the title page, 
"Beginnings of Practice;" finally, to cross that out also 
and to write, "Law Office and Court Procedure," un- 
der which title the book exists today. 

After some delay I received a letter from the publish- 
ers, dated August 31st, 1909, from which I quote in part: 

"We have made an estimate of the cost of setting type 
and manufacturing of your work 'Law Office and 
Court Procedure' and have given the whole matter 
careful consideration and have consulted with assist- 
ants in our law department. 

"We regret to state that, taking into consideration the 
large expense of the work, we feel that we should be 
able to count upon a general sale throughout the country 
linless the work is to be published at a loss. Feeling 
as we do, we are compelled to conclude that we cannot 
make a proposition which would entail our bearing the 
whole cost of manufacture and publication. If you felt 
that you could assume the cost of setting the type and 
making the plates, we would be willing to pay for paper, 
presswork, binding, selling and distributing, and press 
copies, and pay you a royalty upon copies sold, but we 
cannot see our way to making a more liberal proposition. 
Should this meet with favor we can write you as to esti- 
mate and royalty. 

"The fact that you stated that you hoped the book 
could be sold for a low price influences us to some 
extent, but not wholly in the conclusion reached. The 
only books that can be sold at a low price are books 
which are likely to have a large sale ; and we are unable 
to think that this would be the case with the book under 

118 



MY FIRST LAW BOOK 

consideration. We will hold the manuscript until we 
hear from you." 

All the happy dreams that I had entertained over writ- 
ing the word "Archer" across the back of a law book 
vanished instantly. My disappointment was extreme, 
for I had put a great deal of labor into the venture and 
spoiled my summer vacation into the bargain. 

I called at the publisher's office and learned that I 
would have to put up five or six hundred dollars in 
order to get the book published, which in my financial 
condition was a sheer impossibility. I went home by 
the first train, resolved to forget that I had ever been 
so unwise as to try to write a book. 

Two months before I had moved from Alpine Street, 
Roxbury, to Mishawan Road, Woburn, largely for the 
sake of my young son who had been very sickly in the 
city. I had been so deeply engrossed in my law writing 
that I had had little time to enjoy the country; and this 
sudden shipwreck of my plans would at least give me 
a few days vacation. 

But hope dies hard. Within three days of this first 
defeat, I wrote to the publishers offering to purchase 
every copy of a reasonable sized first issue that was left 
on their hands after a certain time, for I could use the 
books in my school. I suggested also that I might cut 
down the size of the book, by omitting some of the il- 
lustrative material in the work. 

On September 8th the publishers sent me the manu- 
script for revision, together with a letter which stated, 
"Taking into account the changes you have in mind, we 
do not think there is any doubt but that we shall be able 
to arrange with you for the publication of the book, 
bearing the entire cost ourselves. We send you the 
manuscript herewith, and will be much obliged if you 

119 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

will let us know how long it will be before you can place 
it in our hands." 

Needless to say this letter made me as happy as the 
former one had made me sad. Before the opening of 
the Fall Term I had delivered the revised manuscript. 
It may be of interest to the many students of the Suf- 
folk Law School, past and present, who have taken 
Pleading and Practice under Webster A. Chandler (a 
splendid teacher, but a most pessimistic correcter of ex- 
amination books) to know that Mr. Chandler examined 
the manuscript of "Law Office & Court Procedure" and 
it fared like some of the examination books they have 
written, received a very low mark. However, I didn't 
tell the publishers what Mr. Chandler thought of the 
book. The royalty contract was signed October i6, 1909 
and the book came from the press January 15, 1910. 

A source of great satisfaction to me was that, al- 
though the publishers had gotten out all the copies they 
dared in the first issue (fearing that they would be years 
in disposing of the lot) yet the sale was so far beyond 
their expectation that within six months they were 
obliged to get out a second issue of the book. With the 
exception of Wigmore's Pocket Code of Evidence, it 
proved to be Little Brown & Co.'s best selling law 
book of the year. 



120 



A YEAR OF TRIBULATIONS 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

A Year of Tribulations. 

It was a matter of regret to me that the annoimcement 
of the publication of my book could not have been made 
before the opening of the school, September 27, 1909. 
I realized only too keenly the havoc that the Bailey let- 
ter in the Y. M. C. A. Law School catalogue was play- 
ing with my plans, and every counteracting influence 
was imperatively needed. Had it not been for the fact 
that another man, Frank Daly, had duplicated Brown's 
record of the previous year, in passing the bar exam- 
inations after but two years of study, and some other 
students who had studied three years were successful in 
the same examination, it is hard to say what would have 
been the size of the entering class. 

By a peculiar turn of fate. Dame Nature herself took 
a hand against the school and dealt us a terrific blow by 
staging a rainstorm for opening week of the school. It 
had been our experience that we gained more men from 
the visitors who attended opening evening than in any 
other way. I had therefore sent out the usual invita- 
tions to the men on our mailing list, but all during the 
afternoon and evening of opening day the rain descend- 
ed in such torrents that only the most hardy of our 
registered students braved the storm. 

I was appalled at the prospect, for I had figured out 
the number of new students necessary to meet the heavy 

121 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

additional expenses of the school. I saw that instead 
of an increase over the previous year's attendance, 
there was likely to be an actual decrease. With a heavy 
heart, I faced the Freshmen that evening. But I pre- 
served a smiling- and confident attitude until the exer- 
cises of the evening were over. 

Once alone in my office, with nothing especial to do 
until time to take the 10.30 train for home, I figured up 
the total attendance of the evening from the reports of 
the other instructors. How I was to pilot the school 
through the financial breakers ahead was more than I 
could see. Completely worn out by the day and its cul- 
mination, I dropped my face onto my arms and gave 
way to momentary despair. 

It was still raining the next day. Hoping that I could 
yet stem the tide of defeat, I sent out new invitations 
to the men on my mailing list, but with little eflfect. 

The highest attendance during the year of 1909-1910 
was 107 tuition paying students, with a number of addi- 
tional men who were receiving scholarship aid; but that 
number dwindled through desertions to the Y. M. C. 
A. Law School, and otherwise, until the attendance 
dropped to about seventy students. One new in- 
structor was added to the teaching staff during this 
year, Thomas R. P. Gibb, who teaches Equity. 

The only bright spot in this school year was the 
publication of my new book, "Law Office & Court 
Procedure." But the school work went on with un- 
remitting zeal, my brother Hiram proving a staunch 
and dependable assistant, teaching four subjects 
throughout this critical year. 

It soon became evident to me that the enemies of the 
school were intent upon its complete ruin; and the plan 
of campaign which they adopted in the winter of 1910 

122 



A YEAR OF TRIBULATIONS 

came perilously near annihilating the institution. It had 
been spread broadcast that the four year rule of the bar 
examiners, adopted the previous year, had been intended 
as a slap at the Suflfolk School of Law. These rumors 
I had to endure with such patience as I could com- 
mand. 

It was also current belief among evening students that 
the Y. M. C. A. Law School had "a pull" with the bar 
examiners ; that to attend the Y. M. C. A. was a certain 
appeal for their favor. In proof of this was cited the 
Bailey letter, and also the fact that Mr. Bailey was 
listed in the Y. M. C. A. catalogue as a special lecturer 
in the school. Whether he was ever a teacher in the 
Y. M. C. A. Law School Mr. Bailey can best answer; 
but he has been so listed in Y. M. C. A. catalogues up 
to the year 191 4. 

But in March, 1910 the Bar Examiners passed a new 
regulation requiring all candidates for the bar examina- 
tion to be graduates of an approved high school, or to 
pass the entrance examinations to the State Normal 
Schools. To my consternation the bar examiners shortly 
afterward ruled that graduates of the Evening High 
Schools of Boston were not eligible to take the bar exam- 
inations, but that graduates of the Y. M. C. A. Evening 
High School were eligible, and the Y. M. C. A. High 
School was the only evening school to be listed as an 
approved school. The manifest unfairness in discrimin- 
ating against the free public schools in favor of the Y. 
M. C. A. School, which was not free but charged a con- 
siderable tuition, was now seized upon as conclusive 
evidence that the Y, M. C. A. did have a "pull" with the 
bar examiners. 

The effect upon my students was demoralizing in the 
extreme. Many students left the school and a sullen dis- 
content pervaded every class. I tried to stem the tide 

123 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

by announcing that the Suffolk School of Law would 
institute a summer preparatory department to train men 
for the Normal school examinations. This undoubtedly 
reassured many of the students ; but there was an unruly 
element in some of the classes that grew more and more 
troublesome. 



124 



A STUDENT REVOLT 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

A Student Revolt. 

The trouble came to a head at about the time of the 
annual school banquet. This had always been the great 
event of the year, the students turning out in a body. 
But this year, although a large proportion of the students 
then in the school had spoken for banquet tickets, the 
discontented ones with the others, yet they treated me 
to a rude surprise. Only a few of the faithful students 
put in an appearance at the banquet, making the school 
look ridiculously small in the eyes of our guests and 
the reporters who were present. 

My disappointment and mortificsation at the affair 
would never have been translated into action had it not 
been for the events of the following evening at the 
school. I then found that a great deal of exultation was 
being indulged in by a certain clique of students. Hints 
were openly conveyed that the whole affair was deliber- 
ately planned to humiliate me. 

One of the very men whom I by that time knew to be 
a fomenter of discontent, met me in the corridor and 
openly indulged in some witticism over the banquet 
fiasco, and remarked that there were too many "sore- 
heads" in the school. I retorted sternly that he was abso- 
lutely correct in his statement, and informed him that 
there would be fewer of that variety in the school in a 
very short time. I glared him in the eye meaningly, and 
walked on to my office. 

125 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

I later observed that the man was in earnest consulta- 
tion with his circle of followers, but I was still uncer- 
tain what action to take. The school was evidently 
seething with suppressed feeling. One of the most faith- 
ful of my students came into the office and told me with 
great indignation that he had heard a certain freshman, 
who was friendly with the troublemakers, orating in the 
corridor to his classmates and uttering some very dis- 
loyal statements concerning me and the school. 

I was dumfounded at the report, for the very man 
who was accused had been pleading all the year for 
scholarship aid, and only the previous week I had at my 
own expense awarded him a half scholarship. The day 
before I had received a letter from him thanking me 
most effusively for my kindness. To know him to be 
such an ingrate roused me to instant action. 

I summoned him peremptorily to my office within five 
minutes from the time he had spoken the words, and 
while he was still in conference with the insurrectos. 
This action evidently spread alarm among them. It 
certainly alarmed him, for he came to me very pale cind 
concerned. I notified the librarian not to allow anyone 
to enter my private office, and closed the door. 

The culprit at first pleaded innocence, but my in- 
formation had come from too reliable a source for his 
denials to count with me, and I forced him to admit 
his guilt. In punishment I at first sentenced him, 
not only to a forfeiture of his scholarship, but also 
ordered him to leave the school forthwith. 

But he pleaded so hard for forgiveness and appealed 
so effectively that I would not "ruin" him, as he ex- 
pressed it, by expulsion from the school, that I finally 
relented as to that part of the sentence and promised 
him he could continue as a student so long as he con- 

126 



A STUDENT REVOLT 

tinued loyal in all his words and acts. The sequel is that 
he completed his freshman year; but I have never seen 
nor heard from him since. 

While I was in the midst of this nerve-racking con- 
ference my telephone rang, and to my amazement the 
school librarian was on the line, somewhat out of breath 
as if having reached it in great hurry. The librarian at 
that time was John Stinchfield, a college student. 

"This is Stinchfield," he said, "I am at the pay station. 
I hurried downstairs to warn you, for the library is full 
of men. There is trouble brewing and you will have to 
be ready for it." He named to me the ringleaders, 
and the names he gave were the very men whom I 
suspected. 

Mr. Stinchfield's quick wit in leaving the library and 
notifying me by telephone of the insurrection was a very 
considerable service to me at the time. Had I dismissed 
the culprit through the library and been treated to the 
surprise of meeting the hostile array without preparation, 
it would have been a very difficult situation indeed. 

As it was, I dismissed the culprit through my private 
door to the corridor and stepped into the library and con- 
fronted the assembled students, about twenty-five in 
number. 

They looked at one another uneasily, for I said noth- 
ing, standing rigidly with my back to the closed door of 
my office, waiting for them to speak. Some one of the 
men informed me that they wanted to see me — to talk 
with me on an important matter. 

I replied, "I am ready, gentlemen, to hear all your 
grievances. Go ahead, Mr. ." 

He went on and on. When he paused for breath, I 
calmly asked if he had anything more to say, or if anyone 
else had anything to say. They tried in vain to draw me 

127 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

into an argument, or to learn what my attitude was on 
the demands already voiced ; but I informed them that I 
would render my decision after hearing all the argu- 
ments. All the time I stood rigidly at attention, narrowly 
watching the faces of the men and noting all that the 
spokesmen were voicing, for my attitude had evidently 
misled them into thoughts of victory. 

Their demands were certainly extraordinary. One of 
their grievances was that I had recently adopted a very 
effective expedient to secure the payment of tuition. A 
few days before each instalment of tuition was due I 
posted on the bulletin board a complete list of students, 
crossing off the names as the students paid their tuition; 
the result being that many of the dissatisfied ones, who 
were notoriously slow in payment of their tuition, had 
to undergo the humiliation of having everybody in the 
school know it, instead of its remaining a secret with 
me as theretofore. They demanded that I discontinue 
the policy. 

Another claim was that, since when they entered the 
school we were under a three year system, I should 
therefore give them the fourth year of instruction free of 
charge. The irony of such a request in the financial 
crisis the school was in, did not of course appeal to them. 

The third demand was that because when they entered 
the school there was no general educational requirement 
it was the duty of the school to furnish instruction in our 
projected preparatory school free of charge. There may 
have been a few more minor requests which I have now 
forgotten. 

I began mildly by explaining to them a well known 
principle of the law of contracts, "operation of law of 
the jurisdiction." that proved untenable both their re- 
quest for a fourth year of free tuition and also for free 

128 



A STUDENT REVOLT 

preparatory instruction. This put the "learned counsel" 
who had conducted the hearing in so absurd a light that 
I saw that I had detached the main body of their follow- 
ers. 

As for the tuition list, I explained the tribulations I 
had tmdergone in trying to collect tuition ; and how on 
several occasions I had been obliged to borrow money to 
keep the school running, although at the time there were 
hundreds of dollars due the school from the students. I 
also informed them that there were men in the room at 
that moment who owed the school more than forty dol- 
lars apiece. I admitted that if we wanted to encourage 
such a condition as that, the list was very annoying 
and unfortunate for the gentlemen in question. 

In closing my remarks I bore down pretty heavily on 
the ringleaders of the trouble, and pointed out their dis- 
loyalty and the trouble they had caused. I informed 
them that it was not the first time that students had 
attempted to run the Suffolk School of Law, but that 
I had learned a way to deal with such men ; that there 
were at least three men in the room who were very likely 
to be expelled from the school. 

The consternation and silence that fell upon the assem- 
bly was almost painful. I dismissed the meeting by 
assuring the men that I had no personal grievance 
against any one of them. My contemplated action pro- 
ceeded purely from what I considered to be my duty to 
the school ; that even then I was not sure of what my 
final action would be, for I would think it over until 
morning. 

The next morning, however, I was still of the same 
mind, and I wrote a letter of expulsion to each of the 
three men. This action roused a tempest that shook the 

129 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

school to its foundations. The expelled students did 
picket duty for several weeks near the downstairs en- 
trance of the school, denouncing me as a tyrant to all 
who would listen. 

But an even more serious consequence resulted, for 
they made a race issue of it, owing to the fact that all 
three of the expelled students were of the same race. 
Every student of that race with two exceptions deserted 
the school and went either to the Y. M. C. A. Law School 
or to Mr. Innes. 

The race issue was farthest from my thoughts, al- 
though I was perfectly well aware that to expel the 
leaders of so formidable an insurrection would raise a 
tremendous disturbance. I took the step as a matter of 
principle, foreseeing grave consequences, but con- 
vinced that the ultimate salvation of the school de- 
pended upon it. 

More than five years have passed since then, and I 
have never had another insurrection of evening students 
to deal with. 



130 



MY SECOND LAW BOOK 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

My Second Law Book. 

Accustomed though I was to adversity from my 
childhood up, the wmter of 1910 with its haunting 
nightmare of financial difficulties oppressed me great- 
ly. Try as I did to forecast a brighter year for 1910 
and 191 1, I was obliged to confess to myself that the 
likelihood was very great that severer trials awaited 
me. I had given up my law practice, and the royalty 
on my book was the only source of income. 

A fragmentary diary that I left in those days tells 
of my vain endeavor to earn money by writing fiction. 
I wrote a novel which went the rounds of the pub- 
lishers and returned to me after many days. I wrote 
many short stories, and sold one of them. 

But an event occurred in April 1910, that resulted in 
the writing of my second law book, I have already 
spoken of Mr. Boynton's engagement as teacher of 
Legal Ethics. Now in April 1910, his lectures were 
scheduled, but owing to pressure of his law practice 
he was unable to give them. 

In the extremity, I undertook to prepare a course on 
Legal Ethics and lecture in Mr. Boynton's stead. But 
in looking around for a text book I could not find one 
in Boston ; nor that any such text book existed. I 
appealed to Little, Brown & Company, but their law 
department could not help me out. 

The only thing that I could find on the subject was 

131 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

the recently adopted canon of Ethics of the American 
Bar Association. My diary explains the incidents 
leading to the writing of my second book quite fully, 
and I shall therefore copy some entries verbatim. 

"Monday, April ii, 1910. 

"Today while at work upon a projected course in 
Legal Ethics and finding no books on the subject, the 
thought came to me that there might be a need for 
such a book. As a preliminary investigation of the 
possibility of writing a book I made note of a large 
number of topics that might be used, taking the canon 
of ethics as a basis. When I had satisfied myself that 
there was quite an -extensive field for work I tele- 
phoned to Mr. yoorhees of Little, Brown & Company. 
He was not in, so, as an afterthought, I talked with 
Mr. Mclntyre of the firm. He expressed himself as 
interested and asked me to call and talk it over. In 
the evening after my lecture (in Torts) I worked some 
before going home in arranging the material I had 
collected." 

"Tuesday, April 12,1910. 

"During the forenoon, completed the outline of the 
law book, to be written in fifteen chapters. At 3.00 in 
the afternoon called on Mr. Mclntyre at Little, Brown 
& Co.'s offices. He called Mr. Voorhees and we three 
went into the consultation parlor and held a session 
behind closed doors. I explained the project and read 
the outline of the first six chapters. Mr. M. then told 
me that it was unnecessary to go farther — they wanted 
the book as soon as I could write it and would suit 
me on terms, etc. The price and title of the book were 
discussed — price to be $3.00, title uncertain. After 
lecture in contracts fin the evening) started Avriting 
the book, doing only the first paragraph." 

132 



MY SECOND LAW BOOK 

It should be noted that the student insurrection came 
directly after that — during the same week. The next 
reference I find to the book is under date of April i8th 
when I wrote. 

"Thought of a title for the book that suits me better 
than any other — 'Ethical Obligations of the Lawyer.'-" 

I completed the first chapter April 19th ; second 
chapter April 26th, and from that time forward pro- 
gressed speedily, finishing the book on July 6th, 1910. 
It thus occupied me eighty-five days from start to fin- 
ish. While I can now discern many crudities in the 
book and various things that I will change in the next 
edition, yet when it was published it received high 
praise from some of the leading law magazines of the 
country. 

The book was accepted by Little, Brown & Com- 
pany, July 26, and published November 17, 1910. I 
had thus won the honor of having two law books pub- 
lished in the same year by one of the leading firms of 
law publishers in America. No^t only that, but there 
were only three new law book^ gotten out by Little, 
Brown & Co. in i9ro, two of them from my pen. 

One of the press items at that time was as follows: 

DEAN ARCHER HONORED AS AUTHOR. 

"Dean Archer of the Suffolk School of Law, has been 
honored by having his portrait used as the cover of 
the October Law Book Bulletin of a publishing house. 

This place of honor is reserved for their most suc- 
cessful authors. The title of the Dean's new book is 
"Ethical Obligations of the Lawyer." — Boston Rec- 
ord, September 24, 1910. 

133 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Low Water Mark. 

In addition to my labors upon my new law book, I 
undertook the heavy task of doing all the teaching in 
the newly inaugurated preparatory department. Three 
evenings a week, from the last of May to the middle of 
August, 1910, found me at the school. No law teach- 
ing was ever quite so burdensome to me as the teach- 
ing I did throughout that hot summer. 

Geometry, History and English were the chosen 
topics, and the men who took the course seemed at 
first very backward, especially in the subject of Geom- 
etry. Before the summer was over I decided that 
never again would I undertake so heavy a burden as I 
was then carrying; and I have never done any teach- 
ing in the preparatory department since that time. 

It was a desperate attempt on my part to prove that 
men could pass the Normal School Examinations in 
the subjects named (being a part of the subjects re- 
quired by the bar examiners) and not be obliged to 
attend the Y. M. C. A. Evening High School. But all 
my labors went for naught, as will be seen. 

The chairman of the Board of Bar Examiners had 
told me that he had arranged it with the State Board 
of Education so that men could go to any of the State 
Normal Schools for examination. To my dismay I 
discovered that the Boston Normal School was not 

134 



LOW WATER MARK 

under State control, and that the nearest Normal 
School available for our students was in Salem. 

Accordingly, after the close of our course, the 
students who had taken it, (about ten in all), went to 
Salem for the examinations. I happened to be at the 
office that morning, and received a rude shock when 
one of the men called me by telephone and told me 
that the authorities at the Salem Normal School had 
refused to examine them, and knew nothing at all 
about any arrangement with the bar examiners. He 
announced that the students were on the way back to 
Boston. 

I called up the office of the chairman of the Board 
of Bar Examiners and learned to my dismay that the 
Chairman was in Europe and was not expected back 
until the following month. 

I then called up the State Board of Education, but 
could get no one who knew about the arrangement 
with the examiners. So I went to their office in person 
and had my first meeting with Commissioner Snedden. 
If I remember correctly he knew nothing of the 
arrangement, it perhaps having been made with the 
Chairman of the Board of Education. 

But Commissioner Snedden agreed that if the men 
would return to Salem they should be examined. I 
returned to my office, but only two of the men, as I 
recall it, would go back to Salem. The rest were full 
of disgust and indignation at the whole affair, for they 
had each been to great trouble to get a day off from 
their employment, and it was now almost noon. 

So far as I have ever learned, the two men who took 
the examinations in Salem that afternoon were never 
notified whether they passed or failed. 

135 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

The bar examiners afterward explained the incident 
by saying that inasmuch as their rule did not go into 
effect for about two years they had not considered it 
likely that any men would desire to take the qualifying 
tests that summer — hence they had not caused the 
Normal Schools to be notified. 

But my school was the victim, as events amply dem- 
onstrated. My students were practically the only 
ones required to submit to the Normal School Exami- 
nations, for the Y. M. C. A. Evening High School cer- 
tificate was accepted as the equivalent of a day high 
school diploma. 

The inevitable happened, for the belief that was ram- 
pant that it was neccessary to go to the Y. M. C. A. 
Law School in order to get recognition from the bar 
examiners, was seemingly confirmed by this incident. 
These were in fact test cases and all the students in 
the Suffolk School of Law were watching the result. 
There was no excuse that I could offer. I had done 
my best and the failure of the experiment was so 
obvious that no one could overlook it. 

The Y. M. C. A. Law School authorities were jubi- 
lant Again the rumors were afloat that the Bar Ex- 
aminers were allied with the rival school, and these 
rumors became so annoying and persistent that I was 
finally constrained to secure a signed repudiation of 
this slander from Chairman Bailey himself, to show 
to prospective students who openly challenged me on 
that point. 

Another report became current among the students 
of my school at that time, to the effect that students 
who attended the Y. M. C. A. would be slipped 
through the high school department at the same time, 

136 



LOW WATER MARK 

upon the payment of certain tuition charges. Whether 
this was knowingly used upon my students as an in- 
ducement for desertion or not, the facts were that 
there was a quite general desertion from the school, 
one class alone losing about twenty men. 

The effect of this desertion, together with the race 
issue that had been raised by the students I had ex- 
pelled the previous April, was demoralizing in the ex- 
treme. Not even the fact that three men who had just 
completed their Sophomore year in the school were 
admitted to the Bar in the summer of 1910 (the four- 
year rule had not yet taken effect) could to any extent 
counteract these hostile agencies. With ever growing 
despair I kept vigil in my office waiting for stragglers 
to come in. 

Had it not been for the financial success that "Law 
Office & Court Procedure" was scoring, and the en- 
grossing duties of proof reading of my new book, it is 
hard to say how I should have kept from utter despair 
during the waiting period. 

The time came for the opening of the rival school 
and the weather was perfect — just the sort of weather 
that I was praying for for the opening night of my 
own school. 

I sent out the usual invitations, but I should have 
sent life preservers with them, for on opening night 
the rain was descending in torrents and the gutters 
were roaring brooks, even worse than the year before. 

However, the disappointment was not so keen as on 
the former occasion, for I had become callous to dis- 
appointment. I remember that in riding down the ele- 
vator from my office in Tremont Temple to meet the 
Freshmen in a downstairs hall, I jested grimly with 

137 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

the elevator man over how the Y. M. C. A. Law School 
had a "pull" even with the weather man. 

It was a mere handful of bedraggled men that met 
me — perhaps fifteen to eighteen, in a hall that would 
hold a hundred men. But I lectured to them to the 
best of my ability, and the first night of school for the 
year 1910-1911 became a matter of history. 

When I came to figure up the total attendance in all 
classes I saw that I had left to me a mere remnant of 
what the school had been — about seventy men in all 
four classes from whom tuition could be expected, and 
more than half of them were paying $45.00 tuition. 
From these seventy I must expect the usual deser- 
tions. The numbers in fact decreased until, during 
the latter part of the year, there were only fifty-five 
tuition paying students. 



138 



THE RESURRECTION OF HOPE 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Resurrection of Hope. 

The time had now come when it seemed to me that 
optimism was no longer a virtue. I had given more 
than four years of my life to the school ; I had aban- 
doned my law practice; endured every hardship and 
privation, and I was now a virtual bankrupt, with a 
school on my hands that I was running at a considera- 
ble loss. 

In November 1910, a second child was added to my 
family, a daughter whom we named Marian. In- 
creased expenses brought home to me afresh the handi- 
cap under which I was laboring. Could I but cut 
loose from the school, and devote my entire time to 
literary pursuits, or resume my law practice, I felt 
very confident that I could greatly improve my for- 
tunes. 

In the school's behalf I had borrowed money to a 
considerable amount. My total inability to repay that 
money was a constant source of worriment to me. I 
could not well overlook the duty that I owed my 
family, for they were the real victims of my ambition 
to found a school. 

My wife and I often discussed the matter in an 
earnest attempt to reach some solution of our great 
problem. But we were agreed that my duty to the 

139 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Students who were then attending the school forbade 
my closing it until the school year was ended ; or until 
I could transfer the school to responsible proprietors. 
The thought of trying to secure a professorship in 
some desirable law school was also on my mind. 

"Weeping beside the waters of Babylon" never ac- 
complished much in this world. I soon roused my- 
self to make the very most of every opportunity that 
offered. I resolved that every influence that could 
possibly be brought to bear for the betterment of the 
school should be employed. 

There is probably no situation in life, however diffi- 
cult, but has some redeeming feature, if a person will 
but look for it. And I soon found a redeeming feature 
about my school — every student now in the school was 
loyal and true. 

I resolved to capitalize that loyalty and, if possible, 
to build up the school anew on stronger foundations 
than ever before. To that end I issued a special state- 
ment to the students, from which I will quote in part : 

"Measured in efficiency of instruction of our stu- 
dents, we are entering upon the best year of the 
school's existence. The school equipment is more com- 
plete ; the system of instruction has reached a higher 
degree of perfection and we have devised an improved 
method of faculty co-operation, so that we can cen- 
tralize our efforts to greater advantage. We expect 
every student to do his best in his work and we pro- 
pose to do our best for every student. 

"If you wish to get the most good out of your 
school, be loyal to it in word and act. It may not be 
perfect, for I never knew a school yet that was perfect ; 
but you should bear with us, even as we have to bear 

140 



THE RESURRECTION OF HOPE 

with you. If you have, or fancy you have, a grievance 
I ask you to bring it to me. 

"We propose to build up the strongest and highest 
grade evening law school in the United States ; and if 
we make mistakes from time to time we want to know 
it, so that we can rectify them. I want you one and 
all to feel that you have an interest in this school, and 
that the school has a vital interest in you. Let us 
work together like men who have a community of in- 
terest, in a spirit of good fellowship and with a will to 
accomplish what we have set about." 

Desiring if possible, to unite the students in some 
common object, I encouraged the various classes to 
unite in the publication of a school magazine or paper, 
and there was an immediate and enthusiastic response. 
An editorial board was formed with two representa- 
tives from each class. 

The fact that our students could not secure law de- 
grees was, as I well knew, a tremendous handicap to 
the school. I now set at work to obtain if possible an 
agreement with some other law school whereby our 
students could obtain advanced standing and secure 
the degree by a limited period of study at that school. 

For some time I had known Dean W. E. Walz of 
the University of Maine Law School. He had recently 
written a splendid review of my "Ethical Obligations 
of the Lawyer." Quite naturally, therefore, I opened 
negotiations with him to secure an agreement with 
his school. Much to my delight I succeeded, and 
announced that result in the first issue of the "Sufifolk 
Law Student," in December, iqio. Under the terms 
Df this agreement, any student of the Suffolk School 
of Law, who had completed his first three years' work 

141 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



I 



in a creditable manner, would be permitted to take his 
Senior work in the Law School of the University of 
Maine, and secure his degree ; provided he was a high 
school graduate. 

This announcement aroused considerable enthusi- 
asm. But as a matter of fact none of our men ever 
took advantage of it ; for, as will be seen, within a 
year from that date our school began an aggressive 
campaign to secure the power to confer degrees in its 
own right. 






142 



AN ATTEMPTED CONSOLIDATION 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

An Attempted Consolidation. 

One day in December, 1910, a stranger walked into 
my office and asked me if I could spare him a few min- 
utes of time. He was a Boston lawyer, and my first 
thought was that he desired to secure an appointment 
to the faculty ; for every year quite a number of law- 
yers make applications of that nature. But his mis- 
sion at first surprised and alarmed me. 

He declared that he represented certain gentlemen 
of sound financial backing who proposed to found a 
new evening law school in Boston — one that should 
successfully rival the Y. M. C. A. Law School. He 
stated that he was investigating the situation, and 
intimated that the schools now in existence in Boston, 
mine included, would be invited to consolidate with 
the new venture. 

He then suggested that inasmuch as my school 
seemed to be the most systematically organized and 
conducted, and already had some reputation in the 
community, it might be that the movement could cen- 
tralize about my school ; that the new organization 
could retain the name Suffolk; that I continue as Dean 
and that the whole affair be made to appear as though 
the Suffolk School of Law were absorbing the smaller 
schools, Innes's School and others. He asked me if 
such a plan would appeal to me. I agreed that it 
sounded good. 

143 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

He enthused somewhat, and described how we 
would incorporate and put a bill through the legis- 
lature for power to confer degrees. Then he wanted 
to know how much I would sell the school for, but as 
I was not prepared to set a figure upon it he made an 
appointment for a second conference and left me. 

This new proposition appealed to me very strongly. 
It seemed to point to a Heaven-sent deliverance from 
a situation where I was no longer able to personally 
finance the scjiool. If we were to consolidate and I 
were to receive a guaranteed salary instead of nothing, 
with accumulating school debts added to that, it would 
indeed be a welcome deliverance. 

At my next meeting with the gentleman, whom I 
shall call "the promoter," I named a price for the 
school, which I figured would be but a modest return 
for the as yet unrewarded labor I had bestowed upon 
the institution. He was visibly startled by the price 
and said that his parties would never think of paying 
so much. 

He "beat about the bush" for some time; but I 
finally told him that whatever offer were made it 
would have to be a cash proposition, for I was begin- 
ning to suspect that he was insincere. He argued that 
if I were to be paid out of the school profits as they 
came in, it would be as much as I could expect. But 
I did not take kindly to his line of reasoning. 

He then proposed that Mr. Innes should be brought 
into the next conference ; and I saw at once that he 
was merely an emissary from Mr. Innes. But I was 
willing to see what was afoot from that quarter, so I 
agreed to the suggestion, and we later met at the 
promoter's office, December 21st, 1910. 

144 



AN ATTEMPTED CONSOLIDATION 

The first joint conference was barren of results, but 
at a subsequent meeting, December 27th, Mr. Innes 
and I reached a tentative agreement to merge our 
schools, he paying me a stated sum to equalize our 
equities. We were to form a corporation and apply 
for a charter with power to confer degrees. He as- 
sured me that he could easily secure the passage of the 
bill and, from what I had heard of him as a power in 
Massachusetts politics, I had little doubt of his ability 
to accomplish the feat. In fact, that was one of the 
chief inducements that led me to make the tentative 
agreement to consolidate. 

In my diary under date of December 31, 1910 I 
wrote : 

"As I look forward to the new year there are sev- 
eral problems that seem to be impending. The first 
is the merger of the Suffolk School of Law with the 
Innes School. As things stand it looks as though 
this would be successfully accomplished. The second 
is, whether after the merger we can succeed in pro- 
curing the power to grant degrees. The third is; 
whether in incorporating the Suffolk School of Law- 
we should found a day school as well as an evening 
school." 

The next entry in my diary concerning the merger 
is under date of January 7, 191 1 : 

"Came to town on 7.49 A. M. train to meet Mr. 
Innes. He failed to appear at scheduled time and it 
was after 10.30 when he finally came in. We discussed 
many things, but came to no agreement on the date 
when he was to pay the cash difference that stands 
between us. He wishes to wait and allow me to take 
it from school profits later. I asked for it now. He. 

145 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

made a further appointment for Monday morning, 
promising to be on hand early." 

"Monday, January 9, 191 1. 

"Came to town on the morning train (7.49) to meet 
an appointment with Mr. Innes. Mr. Innes did not 
keep his appointment. 

"Have suspended all preparations on the incorpora- 
tion affair and will await developments. If Mr. Innes 
wishes to do anything he must now take the initiative. 
I am through; for a failure to pass the bill would be 
fatal, and unless Mr. Innes takes a hand in real earn- 
est, there is little prospect of doing anything." 

But on the following day "the promoter" arranged 
for another conference with Mr. Innes. We had al- 
ready partially drafted a bill, to be filed with the legis- 
lature some time before Saturday noon, January 14th, 
for the incorporation of the school with power to con- 
fer degrees. But I told Mr. Innes flatly that I would 
not file such a bill unless he first demonstrated his ab- 
solute good faith by paying me the sum agreed upon. 
Otherwise the failure of the bill would injure my 
school without the slightest harmful effect to him. My 
only guaranty that he would really work for the pas- 
sage of the measure would be that he had something 
to lose as well as I. 

At this conference Mr. Innes gave me written sug- 
gestions as to the terms of a consolidation agreement, 
and promised to have it ready for signature by ten 
o'clock the next forenoon, at which time he would pay 
over the amount agreed upon. He requested me to 
draw up estimates of school expenses for the balance 
of the year and to compile certain statistics. When 
we separated, it seemed that the matter was as good 
as closed. 

146 



AN ATTEMPTED CONSOLIDATION 

I went to Boston on the early train the next morn- 
ing, Wednesday, Jan. ii, 191 1, and worked nearly all 
the forenoon on the estimate and statistics ; all the 
while expecting to hear from Mr. Innes. But he failed 
to put in appearance. I was thoroughly disgusted 
with the whole consolidation affair, for I have always 
made it a rule of life to keep my word with punctillious 
exactness, never missing an appointment if it was 
physically possible to keep it. For that reason, per- 
haps, I have always lost faith in a man's dependability 
if he manifested light regard for his promise, even in 
such a matter as an appointment. 

Dismissing the whole matter from my mind, I 
turned my attention to a new and alluring task, to be 
explained more fully in the next chapter, the writing 
of my third law book. 

The day was not to pass, however, without hearing 
from Mr. Innes. He desired to postpone the matter 
until the next day. 

On the following day I worked steadily on my law, 
book, hearing nothing at all from Mr. Innes. At five 
o'clock in the afternoon I called up his office and 
learned, to my consternation, that he had left for New 
York a short time before and would not return until 
Monday. My indignation at this treatment was only 
exceeded by my grim satisfaction that he would not 
find me the "easy mark" that he evidently expected. 

My suspicion at the time was that he fancied me so 
eager to secure power to confer degrees that I would 
file a bill in the legislature before the time expired for 
filing bills on Saturday, and thus be in a fine position 
to have my school mercilessly slaughtered, and a dan- 
gerous rival to his own school thus effectively dis- 
posed of. 

147 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

But I had had the experience once in my childhood 
of being led up to a bee-hive by a designing companion 
and being most decidedly stung. The lesson of caution 
that it taught me had remained with me forever after. 

However, I may have misjudged Mr. Innes. But 
that the whole affair was prompted by covetous de- 
signs upon my school is too obvious for comment. 

It had one momentous result. He had unwittingly 
rendered me a great service, for the germ of the idea 
that later took form in our aggressive campaign in the 
legislature had been sown in my mind; there to re- 
main dormant for some months until in the natural 
course of events it should rise up and bear fruit. 

As I look upon the negotiations from this distance 
of time it seems to me merely another manifestation 
of that over-ruling Providence that has many times in 
my life turned me aside from a mistaken course of ac- 
tion, and gradually forced me to that course that was 
wisest and best. It would have been a mistake to 
have attempted to secure power to confer degrees for a 
privately-owned institution. Even though we had 
secured the charter, I very much doubt if two men 
with such differing ideas of teaching, or with such 
differing ideals of life as I now know us to possess, 
could long have continued in the harmonious relation 
essential to the progress of the school. 

It may be that all the hardships and trials through 
which I had passed, and the very competition of the 
Y. M. C. A. Law School, all had their proper share in 
forcing me into the seemingly desperate attempt to 
secure a charter which has resulted so gloriously to 
the Suffolk Law School. Unconsciously, I was paving 
the way for victory when poverty forced me to extra 

148 



AN ATTEMPTED CONSOLIDATION 

endeavors in writing law books, for without the repu- 
tation acquired through them, the fight could never 
have been won in the face of such powerful opposition. 



149 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The Winter of igii. 

The origin of my book on Contracts is thus told in 
my diary under date of December 31, 1910. 

"For some time I have thought that a few years 
hence I would venture into the field of substantive law 
and write on 'Contracts,' 'Agency," etc., for clear, con- 
cise text books on these subjects are needed. But I 
have not until today entertained any thought of im- 
mediate writing upon either subject. 

"Today, at 11:00 A. M., as I was going to Little, 
Brown & Co.'s on business, and had just passed the 
State House on Beacon Street, the thought sprang 
into my mind of asking Mr. Mclntyre of the firm, 
should I see him. if in his opinion, there was a field 
for a book on 'Contracts.' 

"The opportunity presented itself and I asked the 
question. He promised to report to me shortly. As I 
was leaving the building a momentary regret at what 
I had done came into my mind. I felt that I had 'put 
my foot into it,' for it occurred to me that I would not 
care to write the book if they should chance to desire 
it. But every hour since then my enthusiasm has in- 
creased, and if they will take such a book, I will begin 
its preparation immediately." 

On January 3, 191 1, I began writing on the book, 
finishing the second chapter that week. It will be 
remembered that at this time I was in negotiation with 

150 



i 



THE WINTER OF 191 1 

Mr. Innes, but after those negotiations were broken off, 
I fell to work upon the book with great zeal. Between 
Monday, January 16, and Saturday night, January 21, I 
wrote ninety-seven pages of manuscript. 

I completed the book March 16, 191 1, having occupied 
fifty- three days in actual composition, out of seventy- 
two days from start to finish. In manuscript, the book 
contained five hundred and fourteen pages. My two 
most productive days were February 9th and March 6th, 
having written twenty-one pages each day. 

The book was published, not in Boston, as I had orig- 
inally planned, but by a publishing house in Chicago, 
coming from the press in October, 191 1. 

It must not be supposed, however, that my time during 
the winter of 191 1 was entirely engrossed with literary 
work and school duties, for the ever present knowledge 
of the desperate straits into which the school had drifted 
hung over me like a nightmare. 

If I could then have sold the school to any responsible 
parties for a sum sufficient to cancel the debts that I had 
incurred in the school's behalf, it is more than probable 
that I would have done so, irrespective of the years 
of unrewarded labor that I had already bestowed upon it. 

I did, in fact, offer to sell a half interest in the school 
to several different lawyers of my acquaintance, at an 
absurdly low figure, but fortunately without result. 

There was one thing clearly apparent to me all along 
— that power to confer law degrees was imperatively 
necessary if the school were ever to become a success. 
Despairing of securing assistance from individuals, I 
turned my attention to what seemed to be a last hope — 
affiliation with a certain nearby college that had recently 
developed into a university, with several professional 
schools, but with no law department. 

151 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

I interviewed the President of the university and 
offered to turn over my school to the university as a 
nucleus around which to build a day and evening law 
school. Such a school would be able to confer degrees 
without special legislation, the power being inherent in 
the charter of the university. 

Although my proposal found cordial approval with the 
President, it was, after some weeks, definitely rejected 
by the trustees — some of whom were opposed to a law 
department, whether day or evening. 

The temporary encouragement afforded by these nego- 
tiations was of great value to me. It led me to a clearer 
view of the whole situation, and impressed upon me the 
value that a day department would possess if run in con- 
junction with our evening school. 

I was aware that many students feel a sensitiveness 
about having it known that they are evening students. If 
the Suffolk School of Law had both day and evening 
departments, the effect would be greatly to strengthen 
the evening school, for a man could then feel that the 
public could not label him as an evening student merely 
because he hailed from our school. I reasoned, there- 
fore, that even though we could not confer degrees, this 
new feature would prove a counter stroke against the 
Y. M. C. A. Law School. 

But there was also another reason for the day depart- 
ment. Already in my consciousness was shaping the res- 
olution to launch a campaign to secure the power to 
confer degrees. I was well aware of the prejudice that 
existed among lawyers against the Y. M. C. A. Law 
School having the right to confer degrees. It was 
claimed that had the public been aware of what was 
taking place when the Y. M, C. A. charter was "rail- 
roaded" through the legislature in 1904, the bill would 

152 



THE WINTER OF 191 1 

not have passed. I feared that an attempt to charter 
another evening law school, with the tremendous opposi- 
tion that was sure to be encountered, would be disastrous 
to my school. If we had a day department, I reasoned, 
it would disarm in a large measure the prejudice against 
the institution. 

At about this time word came to me that Boston Uni- 
versity Law School had become in some way cognizant 
of my negotiations with the university to which I have 
referred, and that ominous threats were being uttered 
against me. 

While I was in no way influenced by these rumors, yet 
the fact that the desired enlargement would involve addi- 
tional expense, raised an insuperable difficulty. The 
failure of my efforts to sell an interest in the school now 
seemingly cut off all possibility of enlargement and 
closed the only avenue of hope. 



153 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

A New Lease of Life. 

Bankruptcy and the dissolution of the school were the 
somber prospects before me on the first day of March, 
191 1, I felt that I had done my utmost. I had fought a 
long uphill fight, and had at length been overborne in the 
contest. The school must be disbanded in May, unless 
a Heaven-sent deliverance intervened. 

With great reluctance to acknowledge my defeat, I 
went to Mr. Frost and told him all. There were two 
possible courses to be pursued, I assured him: I could 
disband the school in May and definitely resume my law 
practice ; or I could try it out for one more year, with a 
day department and an appeal to the legislature for a 
charter authorizing the conferring of law degrees upon 
our graduates. 

Whether Mr. Frost believed at that time in the event- 
ual success of the school; or whether his advice was 
prompted by a desire to save me from the heavy blow of 
dissolution of the school, I have never been able to deter- 
mine — but he advised the second course, and ofifered to 
make me an additional loan of $500 for that purpose, 
although the previous $500 loan was still unpaid. 

As I look upon it now, that interview was the great 
and crucial moment in the history of the Suffolk Law 
School. Had Mr. Frost done what the ordinary busi- 
ness man would have done, the school would doubtless 

154 



A NEW LEASE OF LIFE 

have closed for all time in May, 191 1; but he was not 
the ordinary business man, and the school passed through 
the crisis in safety. 

With new strength and courage I flung myself into 
the task of reorganization of the school. The first step 
was to incorporate as a charitable educational institution 
under the general law. The agreement of association 
was signed March 10, 191 1, and the charter was shortly 
after granted to the following incorporators : Gleason L. 
Archer, Thomas J. Boynton, John A. Bennett, Wilmot 
R. Evans, Jr., Sumner Robinson, Arthur W. MacLean, 
and Webster A. Chandler. 

Definite plans for the organization of the day school 
now went forward rapidly, in spite of the fact that one 
of the officials of Boston University Law School in- 
formed me that, if I started a day school, the Univer- 
sity would retaliate by opening an evening school that 
would, as he expressed it, "wipe the SuiTolk Law 
School off the map." 

It may be of interest to quote from a letter which I 
wrote to the Dean of the Boston University Law School 
at that time : "The University authorities would continue 
for five years to repulse and ignore me, and then when 
I had matured plans that might possibly conflict with 
their interests they say 'Archer is an ingrate. He doesn't 
appreciate what we have done for him.' I do appre- 
ciate what the university did for me when I was a stu- 
dent, but I do not appreciate the attitude they have 
adopted since. The university itself and its departments 
were founded by men who were obliged in so founding 
to enter into competition with their alma mater. How is 
our case different? If the University sets out to ruin 
my school they may speedily succeed. But of course I 
shall do my best to weather the gale." 

155 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

The first public announcement of the new day depart- 
ment was issued May i, 191 1, and the result was very 
pleasing. Requests for catalogues came in as never 
before at that period of the year, and I felt that the 
school had indeed a new lease of life. 



156 



SCHOOL VOTES TO PETITION LEGISLATURE 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

The School Votes to Petition the Legislature. 

The summer of 191 1 was full of interest for me. 
My new book on Contracts was in the process of pub- 
lication, with proof sheets to be read, and index and 
table of contents to prepare, with all the other com- 
plications that usually attend the publication of a 
book. I was keenly interested, as may readily be sup- 
posed, in the number of prospective students that 
might register during the summer. 

Despite the call for catalogues, it was not until the 
latter part of August that the first day student regis- 
tered. The evening department, however, was far ahead 
of the previous year's record, and, to use a sporting 
phrase, "was running strong." 

The evening department opened September 25, 191 1, 
with thirty freshmen in attendance, the number later in- 
creasing to thirty-six. Small as it was, this class 
afforded very encouraging evidence of renewed vitality 
of the school, for it was fifty per cent, larger than the 
freshman class of the previous year. 

If I had entertained any illusions as to the size of the 
entering class in the day department, these illusions were 
speedily dissipated, for less than half those who had 
registered put in appearance on opening day. 

We had about five day students, but we resolved to be 

157 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

"game" and carry out the regular schedule, irrespective 
of the size of the class. 

The new department had served its purpose in 
strengthening the evening school. It was doubtless an 
assurance to the public that the school was prospering, 
for only the prosperous can be expected to add new 
departments. It carried the lesson to me anew — we 
must secure power to confer degrees or disband the 
school. It was a case of now or never. I began defi- 
nitely to plan the great contest that has resulted so glori- 
ously to the school. 

Before committing myself to any course of action, 
however, I desired to learn the sentiments of the student 
body, and ascertain definitely whether they would sup- 
port me in the contest. I was aware that some of the 
members of our corporation were adverse to a legislative 
contest, so it was necessary to be armed with complete 
information as to what support we could expect from the 
students before presenting the matter definitely to the 
trustees. 

I caused a petition to the trustees to be circulated in 
the various classes, calling for a legislative contest for 
degree granting power. The name of practically every 
student in the school was speedily enrolled. 

After taking counsel with some of my friends as to 
the best way of getting the matter before the legislature, 
I decided that an illustrated booklet with photographs of 
the faculty and representative groups of students would 
be advisable. The expense of such a booklet was the 
only objection. A few evenings before the corporation 
meeting was to be held, I met each class personally and 
laid the entire matter before them, with an estimate of 
the expense of advertising, printing and postage incident 
to the contest. 

158 



SCHOOL VOTES TO PETITION LEGISLATURE 

The response to my appeal was such as I had never 
experienced in the history of the school. The great out- 
pouring of loyal support thrilled me to the soul. I 
vowed then and there never to quit in the fight for 
the upbuilding of the school. 

The students subscribed a fund of one hundred sev- 
enty dollars or thereabouts, meeting in full my estimate 
of the expenses to be incurred. Nor did these subscrip- 
tions come from a few students, for the largest subscrip- 
tion was five dollars, and the majority of them were 
ones and twos, with eighty-two out of our ninety-four 
students recorded. 

Armed with these facts, I met the other members of 
the corporation on the afternoon of November 17, 191 1. 
Hon. Thomas J. Boynton presided, for he was the official 
head of the corporation. Six of the seven incorporators 
were present. 

The entire meeting was devoted to the question of 
the wisdom of instituting a legislative contest. Mr. 
Boynton and Judge Bennett were not over-enthusiastic 
at the prospect. But I had taken the precaution of 
securing the votes of a majority of the board before the 
meeting began, so I was reasonably sure of the result. 
I received an affirmative vote ; but none of us realized 
at the time the magnitude of the task that awaited us. 
The die was cast, and the legislative campaign defi- 
nitely begun. I returned home that night full of 
agreeable anticipations, for a task that promises a 
strenuous battle of wits has never found me lacking 
in zest for the fray. 



159 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Strengthening the Line-up. 

A distinct shock awaited me, when I reached the 
office next day — Judge Bennett had resigned from the 
school corporation. Although he had voted for the 
measure, or at least not opposed it in the corporation 
meeting, he now decided that his position as a judge 
precluded him from taking any part, even nominally 
in a legislative contest. 

I immediately visited him at his office, for I realized 
that without him our corporation would have only 
two men who were likely to have any weight with 
the legislature, Messrs. Evans and Boynton. He 
could not be persuaded to withdraw his resignation, 
so I resolved to say nothing about it for a few days, 
until I could arrive at some definite plan to retrieve 
our loss. 

Like other happenings that have filled me with dis- 
may in some crisis of the school's history, this led me 
to adopt the only course that could have succeeded in 
the legislative fight — to secure the co-operation of 
well-known men who had influence with the legisla- 
ture. 

My first thought was to obtain one such man to 
fill Judge Bennett's place; but I soon realized that our 
prospects would be greatly enhanced if all the peti- 
tioners, aside from myself, were prominent in the pub- 
lic eye. 

i6o 



STRENGTHENING THE LINE-UP 

Mr. Evans had recently completed several years in 
the legislature, having been chairman of Judiciary in 
the Senate during the previous year, and could there- 
fore advise me what men to seek. Acting upon his 
suggestion, I interviewed a number of prominent men, 
the majority of whom turned me down on one pretext 
or another. It was the latter part of November be- 
fore the seven petitioners were definitely settled upon. 

Hon. Charles W. Bartlett was the first to accept a 
place on the board. I shall always carry a vivid recol- 
lection of my first interview with him. Mr. Evans 
had secured an appointment for me, and I waited on 
the General with some trepidation. By reputation I 
knew him to be a celebrated lawyer, and one who had 
not long before been Democratic candidate for Gov- 
ernor in an aggressive campaign. 

General Bartlett's "bangs" and genial face were fa- 
mous in the newspapers all over the State. I needed 
no second glance to know that I was in his presence 
when I entered his private ofifice. He removed his 
cigar and shook hands with me, cracked a joke or two, 
replaced the cigar — lighted it and told me to "fire 
away." 

He sat there, tilted back in his chair, facing me 
across his flat top desk, and I began my story. He 
scarcely uttered a word until I had covered the history 
of the school and my present plan of action. 

His cigar had been out for half an hour, but he con- 
tinued to hold it in his mouth. When I invited him 
to become a member of the board he began in his slow, 
droll way to cast up the account as if he were adding 
a sum, while going over the names of Messrs. Boyn- 
ton, Evans and Robinson, expressing the value of 
each in swear words and nods of approval. 

i6i 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

A young lady stenographer entered occasionally, to 
announce that Mr. So and So was waiting to see him ; 
but each time the General would say, "The Professor 
and I are having a d — n good time. That feller will 
have to wait." And wait they did, for there was a 
goodly array of dark looks that greeted me when I 
finally emerged from the inner office. 

After the General had told me a few stories, he fin- 
ally came to the point of informing me, in his whimsi- 
cal way, that once he had enlisted under "Old Abe," 
and he was going to do it again. A picture of Lincoln 
was hanging behind me on the wall and, from a fan- 
cied resemblance, he had dubbed me "Old Abe." That 
has been his favorite name for me ever since. 

Having secured General Bartlett, there were two 
other possible vacancies. Former Congressman 
Joseph F. O'Connell was next on my list, and on the 
following day, I succeeded in seeing him. 

I had met him once before, during the second year 
•of the school, and had at that time told him something 
of what I was doing. But now that I was inviting 
^him to join our corporation, he manifested no great 
■enthusiasm. Had it not been for General Bartlett's 
name on the list, I doubt very much if he would have 
considered it at all. But he promised to give the mat- 
ter thought for a day or two, and let me know. 

Owing to the fact that I had found prominent Dem- 
ocrats to be more approachable than prominent men 
of my own political faith, I turned naturally to the 
man who had twice been standard bearer of that 
party in the State Election — James H. Vahey. 

My acquaintance with Mr. Vahey was limited to a 
single previous meeting; but one or two of his rela- 
tives had studied in the school, so he was reasonably 

162 



STRENGTHENING THE LINE-UP 

familiar with the institution. He was as swift to ac- 
cept as the others had been slow, for within five min- 
utes he said : "You don't need to plead your case at 
all, Mr. Archer. Your school is doing good work and 
I will be glad to become a member of your corpora- 
tion." 

The next day Mr. O'Connell accepted a place on our 
board, and the list of petitioners was complete. 

As I look back upon it now the securing of these 
three prominent Democrats was a master stroke, for 
it lined up the whole Democratic vote of the House 
and Senate. Had we gone to the legislature with the 
original corporation, the majority of whom were un- 
known, our contest must have ended in ignominious 
defeat. Unconsciously I had selected three of the 
most aggressive warriors that could have been found 
in the city of Boston. Subsequent events will show 
how loyally and effectively they supported me in the 
great legislative contest that was to rage for three 
years from that date. 



163 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Enter Joe Parks. 

Even before the personnel of our new corporation 
was complete, I had prepared the material for the il- 
lustrated booklet; collected the photographs of the 
faculty; had various student groups taken and half 
tones made for our illustrations. Never before in my 
life had I been so busy, for I was teaching daily in the 
day school and two evenings a week in the evening 
department, as well as attending to my regular ad- 
ministrative duties. Preparation for the legislative 
contest was merely side line work, but it occupied 
every available moment of day or evening. 

At the State House I conducted a careful investi- 
gation of the various steps that had been taken in 
1904 by the Y. M. C. A. Law School when it secured 
power to confer degrees. I thereby nearly committed 
a fatal error. 

There is a provision of law in Massachusetts that 
an educational corporation that desires a charter with 
power to confer degrees must advertise for three suc- 
cessive weeks in the newspapers, the last advertise- 
ment to appear at least fourteen days before the legis- 
lature convenes. 

The Y. M. C. A. Law School had disregarded this 
law. Its bill had been introduced very quietly and 
rushed through the legislature in double quick time. 
There was nothing in the State House to apprise me 

164 



ENTER JOE PARKS 

of the statutory requirement; so I went on calmly 
with my preparations until about the twenty-third of 
November. 

By great good fortune, while looking up a statute 
in the Revised Laws, I stumbled upon the provision 
to which I have referred. If I acted quickly there was 
yet time to comply with the statute. It may be im- 
agined that no time was lost in notifying the State 
Board of Education, and requesting the designation 
of newspapers (as the law required). The newspapers 
designated were the Boston Transcript and the 
Springfield Republican. 

The body of our advertisement, in the form of a 
petition addressed to the legislature was as follows: 

"The undersigned citizens of Boston and vicinity 
respectfully represent that for some years past there 
has been maintained in Boston a law school known 
as the Suffolk School of Law ; that the attendance at 
said school and the work done there has been such 
as to warrant the incorporation of the said school 
and the conferring upon it of the power to grant law 
degrees upon its graduates. 

"Wherefore your petitioners pray that the said 
school be incorporated and may be empowered to 
grant law degrees, and for such other and further 
legislation as to the Honorable Senate and House of 
Representatives may seem meet and proper. 

Gleason L. Archer. 
Thomas J. Boynton. 
Wilmot R. Evans, Jr. 
James H. Vahey. 
Sumner Robinson. 
Charles W. Bartlett. 
Joseph F. O'Connell." 

165 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

The booklets came from the printer about the middle of 
December; and, as soon as I could secure an official list 
of the members of the legislature from the Sergeant-at- 
Arms, I mailed out a copy of the booklet, together with 
a catalogue to each member. I also sent out a per- 
sonal letter to each, calling attention to the printed 
matter, and inviting the closest inspection of our 
school. 

There were two distinct results that flowed from this 
letter of mine, the first a hostile response that forecasted 
the serious nature of the contest that awaited us, and the 
second, one of those Heaven-sent helpers that have 
played so conspicuous a part in the history of the Suffolk 
Law School. I shall treat them in the order in which 
they occurred. 

My circular letter was mailed December 20, 191 1, and 
on December 28, I received a set of nine interrogatories 
from a member of the House of Representatives, James 
F. Cavanagh, of the 24th Middlesex District. 

In answered these interrogatories in person. Mr. Cav- 
anagh is a very formal young man upon first meeting, 
something suggestive of an Alpine peak, with frigid 
dignity that lays about him in chunks. However, I had 
looked him up before I called and learned that he was 
a graduate of the Y. M. C. A. Law School who had 
exchanged his evening degree for a day degree at Boston 
University, but who had been admitted to the bar only a 
few months before Roland E. Brown of my school. 

Quite naturally, therefore, his surprise at the youth 
of my enterprise did not disconcert me when it came out 
in our conversation. He abandoned the topic hastily 
when I reminded him that only a few months after he 
was admitted to the bar my first student was admitted. 
Our conversation was in fact more or less of a verbal 

166 



ENTER JOE PARKS 

sparring match. While we were both perfectly cour- 
teous, his icy hostility put me on my mettle and my 
replies were far from meek. 

One little occurrence in that meeting will sufficiently 
indicate the nature of our interview. As I rose to go, 
he said, "By the way, who are you planning to have take 
charge of your hearing before the legislative commit- 
tee ?" 

"Mr. Evans." 

Mr. Cavanagh laughed, "Better have him do it next 
year. You won't need him this year. You can't even 
file your bill this year." 

"Is that so ! Will you kindly tell me why I cannot 
file my bill." 

"I am sorry to say to you, Mr. Archer, that a bill such 
as yours must be advertised in the newspapers, and it is 
now too late." 

It was then my turn to laugh. 

"I am sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Cavanagh, but 
the advertising has been properly attended to. Can it 
be possible that you haven't read the papers? Better 
look up the Transcript and Republican." 

When I left him he was writing down the dates I had 
named. While this interview afforded me some satis- 
faction and gave me an idea of the line of opposition we 
were likely to encounter, yet I could not account at the 
time for Mr. Cavanagh's opposition. 

The second result from my letter was, as I have inti- 
mated, tremendously important to the school, although I 
did not appreciate its importance at the time. It hap- 
pened in this way. 

On the aftenoon of New Year's Day, 1912, I was at 
my desk in the Dean's office when Robert N. Turner, 
a lawyer friend of mine came strolling in. Turner is a 

167 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

brainy young man of large stature, and a twenty horse- 
power smile. His smile was lighting up the office and 
cheering me up strangely when I saw that he was intro- 
ducing a medium-sized, ruddy-faced man, who proved, 
when I shook hands with him, to have an even more 
contagious smile than Turner's own. It was Joseph A. 
Parks, now of the Industrial Accident Commission, but 
then a representative from Fall River. 

Parks had read my illustrated booklet and catalogue, 
and while lunching with Turner in Boston, had asked 
about the school, expressing a desire to study law. 
Turner had immediately brought him to see me. 

My first impression of Mr. Parks was very favorable. 
I have seldom met a man to whom I was more attracted 
at first meeting than to this rising young man from the 
mills. But it was not until I had seen him in action that 
I appreciated the full measure of the man. 



i68 



THE LEGISLATIVE CONTEST OPENS 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

The Legislative Contest Opens. 

Mr. Parks began his studies at the school immediately, 
I tutoring him personally at odd moments until the sec- 
ond half year should open. The result was that we rap- 
idly became acquainted, and he in his turn undertook to 
initiate me into the mysteries of legislation ; for he had 
served eight years in the House of Representatives. 

My first experience at the State House was to attend 
the second inaugural of Governor Foss as a guest of 
Representative Parks. 

Foss was then afflicted with "Presidential fever," and 
his speech was calculated to take the Nation "by the 
ears." The affair was well staged and brilliant; but I 
was glad enough when it was all over, for the great hall 
was packed to suffocation. It had given me an oppor- 
tunity, however, to personally meet quite a number of 
the members of the legislature. It was duly impressed 
upon me by all that it was quite necessary that I should 
make the acquaintance of as many as I could, for num- 
bers of them had never heard of the school before. 

This was my first view at close range of the Massa- 
chusetts Legislature, and my impression was altogether 
favorable, an impression that three years of close observ- 
ation has never effaced. To be sure, I met during the 
three years lobbyists and legislative agents galore; and 
had opportunity to see something of the hidden influ- 
ences that are at work in all legislative bodies. 

169 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Of course I had read the statement from no less an 
authority than the saintly Tom Lawson, that the Massa- 
chusetts Legislature "was bought and sold like fish in 
the market." I never tried to make any such pur- 
chases, and, with one or two exceptions, never saw any 
actual evidence that any member of the legislature 
was expecting a "hand out" of any sort. 

But I was destined to undergo a complete disillusion- 
ment concerning the gentlemen that are popularly con- 
sidered "angels of light" in the legislature, and those 
who are denounced in the public prints as "Czars and 
workers of darkness." But more of that anon. 

The week following the opening of the legislature 
was examination week at the school. Our annual mid- 
year vacation of two weeks succeeded it. Having been 
assured that no action could be expected on the school 
charter before the first of February, I settled down to 
school work and to the pursuit of a new task which I 
had set myself — the writing of a text book on "Agency." 

It may seem to my readers the height of folly for me 
to have undertaken the writing of another book in the 
midst of such strenuous days. At this distance of time 
it does seem even to me to have been foolhardy, yet 
writing is such an absorbing pastime with me that I 
probably indulged in it as an agreeable diversion from 
my many cares. 

At any rate, on January i6th, 191 2, I was in my study 
in my home in Woburn, in the midst of the composition 
of Section 65, "Ratification of simple written contracts," 
in my present book on "Agency," when my telephone 
rang. My Boston office was calling and I received the 
astounding news that a notice had been received through 
the mail from the clerk of the Committee on Education 
informing me that the Suffolk Law School bill was 

170 



THE LEGISLATIVE CONTEST OPENS 

scheduled for a hearing two days hence, January i8th, 
at lo.oo A. M. 

Instant action was necessary if I were to reach the 
State House in time to see the clerk of the committee. 
A train left Mishawum Station in twenty minutes. The 
sentence I had been writing was left unfinished. 

I changed my clothes in double quick time and sprinted 
to the station in season to clamber onto the train as it 
puffed out from the station. When I reached the State 
House, I called, in the Representatives' Lobby, for Mr. 
Parks, and was duly instructed by one of the attendants 
to fill out a card at a little shelf for that purpose beside 
the entrance to the House Chamber. 

Mr. Parks could not be found by the page, so I called 
for the clerk of the committee, Mr. Edward T. Morse. 
He was a dapper little man of sandy complexion, with 
a miustache to match. He declared that he could not 
assist me in getting the hearing postponed. 

It should be explained, in this connection, that the 
reason I was so greatly concerned over this early assign- 
ment was that Mr. Evans, who was to conduct our 
hearing, and who understood every phase of legislative 
procedure, was in Florida on a shooting trip and was 
not expected back until the following week. I have 
always suspected that the reason for such a speedy 
assignment was the fact that the absence of Mr. Evans 
was well known to some members of the legislature who 
presently revealed their animosity to the school. 

The clerk of the committee expressed himself as being 
sorrowful at Mr. Evans' absence ; but declared that I 
would have to see the House Chairman, Benjamin F. 
Haines. Even as we were talking, Mr. Haines appeared 
in the throng that usually eddies back and forth in the 
lobby when the House is in session. I was introduced 

171 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

to the man who was to play the most conspicuous part 
in the opposition to our bill. 

Mr. Haines was afterward to experience such a change 
of heart in respect to our bill that he actually fathered 
the bill in its third and last year, but now he was the 
"Ben Haines" of the opposition. 

Of his opposition I was at the time unaware. He is 
a dark complexioned young man, with a strong and 
pleasing countenance, and an air of engaging frankness. 
He assured me in his turn that the date of our hearing 
could not possibly be changed. 

"You can attend, can't you?" 

"Yes, but Mr. Evans has charge of the affair, and I 
know nothing whatever of legislative procedure." 

"That is all right. We want to know a little some- 
thing about the school. We don't need anybody but 
you. You can tell us all that is necessary." 

Argument was useless. The hearing must take place 
on January i8th; so I resolved to make the best showing 
possible. By good fortune I reached Mr. Boynton, and 
he agreed to introduce the speakers. Mr. O'Connell 
was in Washington, but General Bartlett and Mr. 
Vahey promised to attend. 



172 



THE OCTOPUS SHOWS ITS HEAD 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

The Octopus Shows Its Head. 

The morning of the hearing dawned. I was at the 
State House with a large delegation of students and 
about ten men who were to speak in behalf of the bill. 
The hearing room originally assigned was too small to 
accommodate the crowd, and we adjourned to a larger 
one on a different floor. 

It was a morning of tense anxiety for me, for I feared 
that some of our speakers might fail to show up. But 
one by one they appeared. General Bartlett, with a car- 
nation in his buttonhole, being the last, for he had gotten 
lost in the corridor. 

Although I had never met President Lowell of Har- 
vard, yet I was sure that I saw him in the hearing room. 
I wondered what he was there for, never dreaming 
that he was the intellectual giant relied upon by the 
opposition to annihilate us with a word. 

There were many strange faces, and an air of expec- 
tation pervaded the assembly. I saw Dr. Snedden, the 
Commissioner of Education, with other complacent "in- 
tellectuals" that I rightly divined were from the State 
Board of Education. 

One or two other matters were taken up by the 
Committee before our bill was reached, a circumstance 
that enabled me to marshal my array of speakers he- 
fore the fatal moment. 

173 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

But when our bill was reached and House Chairman 
Haines announced that, as the hour was late, the peti- 
tioners would be allowed thirty minutes to present their 
case, every atom of courage was knocked out of me. We 
were marked for slaughter, I could see that. A bill to 
license dogs would be given more time than thirty min- 
utes; but for an educational institution to be limited to 
that period outraged all my ideas of fairness. 

Mr. Boynton was on his feet, however, recounting 
in his calm tones the history of his connection with the 
school, and urging upon the committee that so cosmo- 
politan a population as Boston's needed a school like 
ours. \\'Tiile he was speaking I recovered from my 
panic, and stood ready to suggest the next speaker, for 
he was relying upon me for that. IMr. Vahey now urged 
that the school deserved the same treatment that had 
been accorded the Y. M. C. A. Law School by the legis- 
lature of 1904, and General Bartlett, who followed him, 
spoke along the same line 

It was then my turn, and all but five minutes of our 
allotted time had expired Fortunately, I had prepared 
my address in writing, and for that reason could not be 
cut off as readily by the chairman when my time was 
up as if I were speaking extemporaneously So I went 
on to recount the history of the school and to explain 
our methods of teaching. 

\\'hen I had finished, Chairman Haines at once showed 
where he stood by propounding a long list of hostile 
questions, much after the Cavanagh interrogatory style. 
I welcomed this action on his part, for it enabled me to 
come back with effective answers, every- one of which 
told for our side. 

An amusing incident occurred during this questioning. 
One of the questions could only be answered by refer- 

174 



THE OCTOPUS SHOWS ITS HEAD 

ence to the school catalogue. I stepped back down the 
aisle to where I had left my green bag. A man had 
just taken a Suffolk catalogue from a green bag, and, 
supposing him to be a student who had anticipated 
my desire, I took it from him with thanks; only to see 
as he straightened up in surprise, that it was President 
Lowell of Harvard. 

I restored the catalogue with my apologies, and se- 
cured my own green bag from the place to which it 
had been moved. 

The Chairman's questioning, which extended for a 
period almost equal to the half hour allotted to us. had 
in reality extended our time, for every new question 
brought out further favorable evidence for the school. 
He wound up by passing me typewritten extracts 
from my book on "Ethical Obligations of the Lawyer" 
and challenged me to say whether they were from my 
book. 

A great deal of laughter at the chairman's expense 
was called forth by my cautious reply that I should 
wish to compare the statements with the book in order 
to be sure. I explained hastily that I did not mean to 
reflect upon the chairman's honesty, but my explana- 
tion only added to the merriment. 

The quotations were totally without reference to 
page or section ; but from my knowledge of the book I 
located them, and found them to be viciously garbled 
statements when lifted from their proper context in 
the book. I called attention to this fact. The House 
Chairman explained that he knew nothing of it, the 
paper having been given to him before the hearing. 

The opposition to our bill was now called for. There 
was a hurried consultation between President Lowell 
and the members of the State Board of Education. 



175 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

President Lowell then advanced to the table to speak. 
For a second time that morning, my hopes came crash- 
ing to the ground. With the President of the greatest 
university in America opposing us, what chance had my 
little school in the unequal contest? 

But as I listened, in a hopeless despair, I noted that 
his arguments were very weak ; that he contradicted him- 
self and seemed to be feeling his way along, like one 
groping in the dark. So I came back to earth and began 
to jot down questions to ask the learned gentleman. 

He urged that the matter of conferring degrees was 
of such grave importance that the bill should be referred 
to the State Board of Education for investigation and 
report. But a moment later he assured us that a degree 
had only a sentimental value, and the withholding of it 
was no hardship to my school. 

At this point one of the Committee, Mr. Greenwood, 
as I recall it, asked him why the school should not 
have the power, if degrees were empty words. The 
learned gentleman was somewhat at a loss how to 
answer him. 

Before he had finished, my fears had rolled away, for 
the "giant" had obviously failed to annihilate us. Then, 
because I was wholly ignorant of legislative procedure, 
I did something that I have never seen even attempted 
since by anyone not a member of the committee. I 
asked the Senate Chairman, Dr. Ezra Clark, if I might 
ask the speaker a question. 

"Just one," snapped the little doctor in his high pitched 
voice. I proceeded to ask several. My first was as fol- 
lows: 

"Suppose there are two schools of equal value in the 
same locality and one can confer degrees and the other 

176 



THE OCTOPUS SHOWS ITS HEAD 

cannot, will not the one that can confer degrees get the 
lion's share of students?" 

President Lowell admitted that it would. Then I 
asked him whether or not our charter ought to be granted 
if we could prove that our school was equal to the Y. 
M. C. A. Law School. He replied that we would be 
clearly entitled to our charter if we could prove equality 
as alleged; an answer that caused great discomfiture to 
our opponents later on. 

The other speaker in opposition was Dean Frank P. 
Speare, of the Y. M. C. A. Law School, who uninten- 
tionally rendered us more assistance than any speaker 
on our side. One of President Lowell's introductory 
remarks had been that Harvard was in no way interested 
in the bill under discussion, because an evening school 
could not compete with Harvard. I was therefore as- 
tonished and delighted to hear Dean Speare declare 
with evident pride that his school was and always had 
been under the wing of Harvard ; with the Dean of 
Harvard Law School as president of its corporation. 

President Lowell had also urged that since our school 
had no endowment it could not long survive; but Dean 
Speare unintentionally demolished that argument when 
he urged rejection of our measure on the ground that 
evening law schools had tremendous money making pos- 
sibilities. Certainly if an institution could be run at a 
great profit it needed no endowment. 

After he had finished, I asked him a few questions 
that must have been very embarrassing to him ; for he 
was forced to admit that although dean of a law school 
he had never studied law a day in his life. When I 
pressed him to explain how he could direct technical 
instruction in law, he replied that he was not at all 
troubled, for he was a "Creator of Educational Oppor- 

-^77 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

tunities," an answer so absurd and irrelevant that the 
hearing broke up in roars of laughter. 



178 



VICTORY IN COMMITTEE 



CHAPTER XL. 

Victory in Committee. 

There were eleven members of the Committee on 
Education, eight representatives and three senators. 
In my ignorance of legislative matters I had supposed 
that the committee would now be polled like a jury 
and the result speedily announced ; but I was straight- 
way informed that the contest before the committee 
had just begun. It was now a question of which side 
could pledge the greater number of committee votes. 

I learned a further thing; that members of the legis- 
lature have far more regard for the will of their con- 
stituents than for the most logical and convincing of 
arguments. If a vote of a constituent is to be lost by 
a certain course of action, the ordinary "statesman" 
will shun that course. If votes are to be lost either 
way, then, if he cannot dodge his responsibility, he 
will vote with what he considers to be the most in- 
fluential side. 

The contest had now centered on the committee. 
Our opponents were very active, and there were days 
of suspense when the issue was uncertain. 

Needless to say, the students of the Suffolk Law 
School were keenly alive to the situation and resolved 
to exert all possible legitimate influence upon the com- 
mittee. 

I procured a splendid letter of indorsement from 
Herbert Parker, the former Attorney General, and 

179 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

mailed a copy to each member of the committee. I 
also had printed two effective documents, showing up 
in one the inconsistency of the arguments as to neces- 
sity of endowment and the other a frank comparison 
of the Y. M. C. A. Law School and the Suffolk Law 
School. These were mailed to the committee. 

Unlike the custom as to dealing with a jury into 
whose hands a law case has been committed, it is con- 
sidered perfectly proper, under legislative custom, to 
talk with members of the committee, either before or 
after a hearing. I remember very well a long confer- 
ence with Representative Greenwood of the commit- 
tee, whom I happened to meet on Ashburton Place one 
morning shortly after the hearing. There were cer- 
tain things he did not clearly understand about the 
school, and I explained them to the best of my abil- 
ity. But when I left him I had no idea which way he 
would vote. 

Reports began to come in however, of a very en- 
couraging nature. Two friends of Mr. Vahey were on 
the committee, and one of General Bartlett; and each 
had expressed himself heartily in our favor. There 
was one socialist member who had been outspoken in 
our favor from the beginning. Even before the execu- 
tive meeting of the committee, when the fate of our 
bill was to be decided, at least five of the committee 
had declared in our favor. 

By this time I had found a very efficient ally, in the 
State House itself, in the person of Henry C. Berlin, 
a newspaper reporter who had once been a student in 
our school, but who had gone to the Y. M. C. A. Law 
School in order to secure a law degree. Knowing both 
schools, he was emphatically of the opinion that our 

i8o 



VICTORY IN COMMITTEE 

school deserved power to confer degrees. With Mr. 
Berlin in touch with everything that went on in the 
State House outside of the legislative assembly, and 
with Representative Parks in the legislature itself, 
very little could transpire without my knowledge, as 
our enemies later found out to their sorrow. 

I was at the State House daily, always in constant 
touch with the progress of the bill. Every school even- 
ing I reported to each class and directed attention to 
this or that object of attack. In a surprisingly short 
time we had a powerful and well-ordered organization, 
each man reporting to me what he had learned or ac- 
complished through friends in the district of any given 
legislator. 

It was a full two weeks before the fateful executive 
meeting of the committee. On the day of the meeting 
I was at the State House, in the corridor near the com- 
mittee room, as full of anxiety for the verdict as 
could be well imagined. One by one I saw members 
of the committee pass into the room, but, to me, a 
very long time elapsed before there was any sign of 
adjournment. 

Mr. Berlin was talking with me and assuring me 
that we would win, when Senator Nason emerged, 
smiling broadly. We hurried up to him. He con- 
gratulated me warmJy and announced that the bill 
had won by a vote of seven to three. Senator Clark not 
voting. 

We had a jubilee at the school that night, for to win 
in committee so handsomely is usually a sure indica- 
tion of an easy victory in both branches of the legis- 
lature. We were yet to learn the power of the 
Educational Octopus and its eager allies. 

i8i 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XLI. 

The First Great Debate in the House. 

The lineup of the committee had been as follows: 
for the bill, Senators Arthur L. Nason of Essex and 
John H. Hunt of Worcester, Representatives J. Her- 
bert Baker of Medfield, Francis M. Cummings of Bos- 
ton, Fred P. Greenwood of Everett, James A. McEl- 
aney of Boston and Charles H. Morrill of Haverhill. 

Those recorded against the bill were Representatives 
Benj. F. Haines of Aledford, Edward T. Morse of East 
Bridgewater and Judson I. Wood of Gardner. 

But it will be remembered that the Senate chairman 
had declined to vote either way, so House Chairman 
Haines had a free hand in the matter. Representative 
Greenwood was the ranking member of the delega- 
tion who supported the bill and, had precedent been 
followed, he should have reported the bill to the 
House. 

But with the subtle ingenuity of the man, Haines 
devised the brilliant scheme of causing the bill to go 
to the House with a socialistic label ; for passing over 
all others he gave it to Representative Morrill, the 
only socialist in the legislature, to report. This meant 
that in case of a debate on the floor of the House, Mor- 
rill was to be the official sponsor of the bill. 

Now Charles H. Morrill is a splendid type of man, 
182 



THE FIRST GREAT DEBATE IN THE HOUSE 

sincere and conscientious to a degree. But it was well 
known to all that the prejudice in the House against 
his political faith could command more votes in op- 
position to a measure which he fathered than the most 
logical of adverse arguments. 

This was the opening strategic move of the com- 
mander in chief of the opposition. That the opposition 
was to be conducted on a large scale was soon appar- 
ent. It was reported to me that every member of the 
House and Senate were being systematically lobbied 
by the opposition. A number of students of the Y. 
M. C. A. Law School, who were members of the legis- 
lature, were reported as especially active. 

Representative Parks became alarmed at the out- 
look for the bill : and, in order to stimulate the activi- 
ties of our students to bring counter pressure to bear, 
he spoke at a mass meeting of the students one even- 
ing, declaring that never in his legislative experience 
had be seen more lobbying on a bill than was then 
going on in opposition to our charter. 

Whenever I met Haines in the corridor, or else- 
where, in the State House, he would always greet me 
with a handshake and a good-natured grin and inquire 
in a bantering tone for "my champion," meaning Mor- 
rill the Socialist; so I was well aware that Morrill 
would be forced to take the floor in behalf of the bill. 

But when the clash came on the floor of the House 
it raged with a violence that I had never even dreamed 
possible. All other business was suspended in the 
legislative session of Thursday, February 8th, 1912, 
and the first great debate on the school charter was on. 

Through the courtesy of Mr. Parks I was seated on 
the "side lines" at the right of the House floor; for it 

183 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

was desirable that I be where I could furnish informa- 
tion or statistics in reply to any attacks from the op- 
position. 

Before our bill was reached, it was obvious even to 
the unpracticed eye that a great contest was impend- 
ing. Representatives, whom I knew to be enemies of 
the school, were moving hurriedly from desk to desk 
throughout the chamber, whispering in the ear of this 
man and that; obviously lining up the vote. 

I was comforted not a little to see Representative 
Parks in his place half way across the hall, his face 
shining with expectation. A large delegation of Suf- 
folk Law School students were in the galleries. Pen- 
sion Commissioner Richard R. Flynn, then a Fresh- 
man, stood in the right hand doorway of the chamber, 
waiting for the show. 

The calendar had been read some time before. It is 
a legislative custom when a matter is to be debated to 
cry out "pass" when it is reached in the first reading 
of the calendar. A perfect roar of "passes" had 
greeted House Bill 123. 

So I knew just when to expect the fight to begin, and 
my pulses quickened strangely when the speaker 
called out "The next matter passed over is House Bill 
123." 

A ringing cry, "Mr. Speaker," rang out, and Haines 
was given the floor. While I cannot recall the exact 
words nor all the details of the debate, I do remember 
the opening challenge and reply. 

"Mr. Speaker," cried Haines, in a voice that reached 
every corner of the great hall ; "as House Chairman of 
the Committee that reported this bill, and as a dis- 
senter to the bill, I want to call upon the gentleman 

184 



THE FIRST GREAT DEBATE IN THE HOUSE 

who has charge of the bill to explain why he is sup- 
porting it." 

There was another ringing cry of, "Mr. Speaker," 
and Parks was in the arena even before Haines had 
resumed his seat. 

"In all my experience, Mr. Speaker, I never knew 
a dissenter to a bill to try to put over a thing like that. 
This bill was reported from the committee by a vote 
of 7 to 3. It is up to the dissenters to show why they 
dissent." 

There was a murmur of applause. Haines saw that 
he was checkmated. He sprang to his feet and again 
obtained the floor. The debate now opened in real 
earnest and resolved itself for some time into a duel 
of words between Haines and Parks. It was then that 
I began to realize what a powerful champion we had 
in Joe Parks. Every attack of Haines was countered 
effectively. Other speakers in opposition were heard. 
While I was the subject of the debate for a time, their 
heaviest accusations were that I was "an inexperi- 
enced boy." 

I had anticipated something of the sort, so I had 
come prepared. I sent a messenger to Mr. Parks with 
printed extracts from the many favorable reviews of 
my books. This was seized by him with great eager- 
ness, and no one could have made better use of the 
material. 

He read the extracts from the Yale Law Review, 
Columbia Law Register, Virginia Law Register, Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Harvard 
Law Review on two of my books. After each of the 
quotations he would exclaim triumphantly, "That's 
what they think of this inexperienced boy," saving 
Harvard as the last authority. 

185 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Representative Greenwood came in strongly in sup- 
port of the bill. Representative Walter R, Meins made 
a remarkably effective speech for the school and Rep- 
resentative Morrill closed the debate. 

I will never forget the tense excitement of the next 
few minutes when the voting began ; nor the stunning 
shock that came to me when the speaker announced, 
after the voice vote, that the bill was lost. 

But Parks was on his feet shouting, "I doubt the 
vote, Mr. Speaker." 

"The vote is doubted. All those in favor of ordering 
the bill to a third reading will rise and stand in their 
places until counted." 

It was done. Seventy-three members arose. The 
opposition was called for, and again seventy-three 
members arose ; so again the bill was declared lost. 

But Mr. Morrill doubted this vote also, and de- 
manded the calling of the ayes and nays. Under the 
rules of legislative procedure in the House, when a 
roll call is demanded at least thirty members must 
join in the call. In this case many more than that 
number arose. 

The roll call began and in the first letters of the 
alphabet we were badly beaten. But when the letter 
"M" was reached, with its Democratic host, we were 
saved. The bill won by a vote of 98 to 93 with six 
pairs ; (that is six men absent who had arranged with 
six men of opposing views who would be present to 
present their names as paired with them on the vote, 
and thus be recorded in the roll call.) But we had 
won ; and the House adjourned for the day. 



186 



1 



LIVELY LOBBYING 



CHAPTER XLII. 

Lively Lobbying. 

The victory of our bill in the House was the signal 
for a general alarm among our opponents. The bill 
had still to be passed to engrossment. There was yet 
time to defeat it if the opposition were skillfully man- 
aged. That it was skillfully managed there is not the 
slightest possible doubt. 

It is customary for a bill that has been advanced to 
third reading to go to the Committee on Bills in Third 
Reading. It was well known that the chairman of 
that committee was an opponent of the measure, so 
the expected happened. The committee held the bill, 
as it had power to do, until the following Tuesday, 
February 13th, thus giving the opposition the time de- 
sired for further agitation. 

Circular letters were sent out by Dean Speare of 
the Y. M. C. A. Law School calling upon all friends 
of the Y. M. C. A. in one letter February 8th, to "write 
at once to your senator, as a citizen of his district, urg- 
ing him to insist that the bill be referred to the State 
Board of Education :" and on the following day, Feb- 
ruary 9th, "get in touch with your Representative and 
Senator and urge them to vote against the measure. 
You need not necessarily state that vou are identified 
with the Y. M. C. A. but approach him as a citizen." 

On the same day, February- 9th, Dean-elect Homer 
Albers of Boston University Law School, wrote a two- 

187 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

page letter to each member of the legislature urging 
the defeat of the measure. In his letter, ostensibly- 
written as from a disinterested lawyer, he urged as 
one of the reasons for defeat of the measure that he 
was "informed" that the Dean of Boston University 
Law School was opposed to the measure, when as a 
matter of fact he was himself the Dean, (although the 
fact of his election was not then generally known). 

It was several days before I got possession of any of 
these letters; but I knew at once after the victory in 
the House that a tremendous agitation was going on. 
I learned that not only were agents of the Y. M. C. A. 
and Boston University lobbying against us, but was 
also informed that the State Board of Education, the 
Boston Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar 
Association, were actively at work to defeat our 
bill. The Educational Trust of Massachusetts were 
out in martial array to defeat the Sufifolk Law School. 

How effective a campaign they waged may be 
judged from the fact that of twenty-five Harvard men 
in the legislature, twenty-three voted against us ; of 
eighteen Boston University men, sixteen voted against 
us ; of nine Y. M. C. A. graduates, seven voted against 
us. This meant that forty-six opposing votes were 
cast by alumni of the three schools that opposed us. 

It is not to be supposed that the friends of the meas- 
ure were in the meantime idle, for eternal vigilance is 
the only safe rule in the support of any bill however 
meritorious. If we could hold the votes we had won 
there was still a chance, even against the powerful 
forces that were opposing us. But we feared deser- 
tions, for by this time I was aware how fickle is the 
legislative mind. 

i88 



LIVELY LOBBYING 

An instance in point, Mr. Vahey and I were in con- 
versation with a certain senator. He told us frankly 
that he favored the bill, but that he should vote 
against it because there were so many Y. M. C. A. 
sympathizers in his district that it would be disastrous 
to do otherwise. That night I gave the name of the 
senator to each of our students from his district. With- 
in two days, a student, who had been designated as 
chairman, called at the Senate chamber with a book 
bag full of personal letters from prominent men o7 the 
district. One of the students had even circulated a 
petition in the factory where he worked and had se- 
cured hundred of signatures calling upon the senator 
to vote for the measure. 

Within twenty minutes the senator in question had 
come to me in the corridor and assured me in most 
emphatic terms of his support. No more loyal sup- 
porter did we have in our three-year fight. He even 
stood against the governor when the veto contest was 
on. 

This is the way votes are legitimately gotten, and 
this is the only method to which we resorted through- 
out the long contest. It is not the way I would have 
chosen, for I believe in trying the case as before a jury 
with nothing whatever to do with those who are to 
decide ; but it is politics, and the only way of accom- 
plishing the passage of any legislation to which there 
is opposition. 

Knowing, therefore, how votes are won and lost, I 
was in constant fear lest our opponents had unsettled 
the stand of a sufficient number of our friends in the 
House to encompass our defeat. They came perilously 
near it, as will be seen hereafter. 

189 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

A Double Shuffle. 

During the first few months of each legislative ses- 
sion in Massachusetts neither House nor Senate hold 
forenoon sessions. From lo A. M. to i P. M. of each 
legislative day the State House hearing rooms, espe- 
cially on the fourth floor, are occupied with hearings 
before the various legislative committees. 

Throngs come and go. At one moment the corri- 
dors are full of hurrying humanity and the babel of 
voices and laughter. At another moment, they may 
be empty, save for an occasional straggler, wandering 
aimlessly from one hearing to another in quest of in- 
expensive amusement ; or a belated "statesman" hur- 
rying to his committee and held rp again and again 
by those who have been lying in wait unobtrusively 
in the corridor. 

The calm, slow-moving lobbyist may saunter down 
the corridor; or sit on the steps of some deserted 
hearing room ; or perch himself, with others of a sim- 
ilar calling, on the broad ledge of a window that opens 
onto the airshaft but commands a view of the corri- 
dors on both sides of the building — a strategic van- 
tage point. 

But the busy part of all the day begins when both 
branches convene at 2 P. M. The larger body is much 
the more picturesque. The House lobby then rapidly 
fills. Members hurrying to the cloak rooms to de- 

190 



A DOUBLE SHUFFLE 

posit their outer g-arments meet members sauntering 
forth from the inner lobby to which the public is 
denied. Greetings and jests, and serious conferences 
are everywhere in evidence. Venerable deputy ser- 
geants-at-arms stand guard, holding the crowd of 
civilians from crossing- the dead line unless they have 
a plausible pretext for mingling with the "elect." 

The numbers of these "elect" in the lobby decrease 
appreciably when the House is in session ; but there 
is always a fair number of them in evidence. They 
do not tarry long in the House chamber as a rule; for 
they either emerge voluntarily, or are called forth 
singly by attendants to meet some constituent who 
has sent in his card. They are invariably happy to 
meet a constituent, whether a total stranger or not, 
and thrice happy if the constituent is a female, which 
happens but seldom ; although occasionally a digni- 
fied solon may be seen piloting a bevy of high school 
girls, or a quartette of schoolma'ams through the 
sacred precincts. 

These were the scenes that were daily enacted be- 
fore my eyes, as with growing anxiety I overlooked 
the busy campaigning that went on against our char- 
ter. I spoke but seldom with members of either 
branch, for I did not know them personally and felt 
a delicacy about seeming to approach them on our 
measure. My presence at the State House was chiefly 
to keep in close touch with every move that was be- 
ing made ; to stimulate the activity of our friends in 
the legislature by receiving their reports at first hand, 
and to impart to them whatever news from "the 
front" had come to my knowledge from other sources. 

Tuesday, February 13th, 1912, brought again a 
great forensic battle on the Suffolk Law School char- 

191 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

ter. We had expected it for days. But now the stage 
was set for a greater contest than the one of the pre- 
vious week. Again from my seat on the side lines I 
saw the ominous activity of our opponents while the 
House calendar was being read. Again the angry 
storm of "pass" challenged House Bill 123, now up 
for engrossment. 

Mr. Parks was in his place, worried but ready for 
battle. The bill was reached. Although Haines had 
told me that he was through fighting, it was he that 
led the debate. A more skillful move would be hard 
to imagine, for he was offering an amendment to the 
bill providing that the Bar Examiners of Massachu- 
setts be ordered to investigate the school and report 
to the next Legislature. 

Around this amendment the battle raged. Parks, 
in an eloquent appeal to the House, declared the 
amendment to be a last desperate effort to defeat the 
bill. From every quarter of the House men were 
clamoring for recognition when Parks sat down. 
With tense eagerness I awaited the name of the next 
speaker, fearing lest it should be that one whom I 
dreaded above all others, Robert M. Washburn. 

I had heard him before on other measures, a man 
of great power of eloquence, and a satirical wit that 
could smother in laughter any ordinary bill to which 
he was opposed. He was a graduate of Harvard, 
therefore opposed as I thought. 

But the speaker recognized an alumnus of the Y. 
M. C. A. Law School, Sanford Bates, who cham- 
pioned the amendment with much sound and fury. 
As he subsided, the clamor for recognition broke out 
again. This time it was Washburn who gained the floor. 



192 



A DOUBLE SHUFFLE 

But Washburn, instead of opposing us as I had 
expected, set the House into roars of laughter in his 
humorous description of Ben Haines, and of Medford 
from which he hailed. Then in serious vein he eulo- 
gized Parks and spoke eloquently for the rejection of 
the amendment and the passage of our bill. 

Henebery of Worcester, another graduate of the 
Y. M. C. A. Law School, was the next speaker; and 
his speech was a shining example of misformation 
and ignorance, for he solemnly assured the House 
that the Suffolk Law School had never graduated a 
single student, nor had a man from the school ever 
succeeded in passing the bar. 

To this Walter R. Meins of Boston made spirited 
response, setting forth the real facts. Representative 
Cavanagh to whom I have referred in a previous 
chapter, opposed the bill ; but Charles R. O'Connell 
of Peabody, who had attended both our school and the 
Y. M. C. A., came in with a ringing eulogy of the 
Sufifolk Law School. 

Plaines now offered his second surprise — an amend- 
ment to his amendment, naming the State Board of 
Education in place of the Bar Examiners. 

From then on the debate was "fast and furious," 
and at this juncture an event occurred that amazed 
and electrified me. Martin Lomasney, the man whom 
the newspapers had taught me to believe the embodi- 
ment of selfishness and greed; the man who out- 
Tammanied Tammany, jumped into the fray in behalf 
of the bill. 

I say "jumped" advisedly, for no man who has 
seen Lomasney in action, his teeth snapping, his arms 
thrashing the air, his trip hammer utterance pouring 

193 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



4 



forth a native eloquence that reaches the inmost emo- 
tions of his hearers, can characterize his entrance in- 
to a debate by any lesser word. 

And Lomasney's speech on this occasion was most 
powerful. He is a shrewd judge of the psychological, 
moment and in this case hit it exactly, drawing to a 
dramatic close the long debate. His closing appeal 
was this : "Don't let the lawyers of this body make 
a trust of legal education in Massachusetts." 

On the roll call that followed, the amendments were 
rejected by a vote of 96 to 94. This was the signal 
for a general uprising of the members, for the hour 
was late. When the chamber was half empty the 
speaker put the bill to vote and declared it lost. The 
vote was doubted and on a standing vote the bill was 
again lost by a vote of 6y to 73. 

Again Lomasney was in action. "Mr. Speaker." 
he cried, "I doubt the vote and ask for the calling of 
the ayes and nays." 

Owing to the depleted chamber and the lateness of 
the hour, I was fearful lest the necessary thirty mem- 
"bers should fail to respond. But I could hear 
Lomasney's excited undertone ordering them up, and 
the ayes and nays were ordered. 

The gong in the corridor began its insistent peal, 
the invariable accompaniment of a roll call. Friends 
and foes were darting hither and thither in a tense 
struggle for mastery. The monotonous roll call be- 
gan. But as the fateful "no" or "yes" came in re- 
sponse to the long list of two hundred and forty 
names the excitement rose to fever heat. The pairs 
had already been announced, but now when the list 
was complete and the opposition saw victory in sight 

194 



A DOUBLE SHUFFLE 

they caused two of their men who were paired with 
two of our absent ones to withdraw their pairs and 
vote instead. 

Then in that crisis the quick wit of two men saved 
the day for the Suffolk Law School. Realizing the 
treachery the opposition had practiced, Parks per- 
suaded one of our men to withdraw his pair and vote. 
Even while Parks was laboring with his man 
Lomasney cornered a Boston University Law School 
student and by sheer power of will compelled him to 
announce that he was paired with one of our men 
who had been paired but dropped in the treachery 
referred to — thus was executed a double shufHe of 
tremendous importance to us. 

So swiftly had these changes taken place that the 
speaker announced the vote before I knew what it 
was all about. We had won by a vote of 98 to 97. 
The opposition was furious, for had they not planned 
it 97 to 98? They would surely have polled that vote, 
as will be seen from a little figuring. With two men 
released from the pair and the man voting that 
Lomasney captured they would have polled 98 votes; 
but with our side still continuing its pairs our vote 
would have been 97. 

Only the quickest of wit could have saved the day 
for us. The whole transaction did not occupy two 
minutes of time. But to me the most amazing thing; 
about the whole matter, and even the debate itself 
was the revelation it had given me of Martin M. 
Lomasney. 

That he had acted in our case without the slightest 
suggestion of self interest was most strikingly man- 
ifest. He, the deep villain of the popular supersti- 



195 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



i 



tion, had acted the hero; the champion of the cause 
of the sons of the workingman, while the so-called 
"guardians of the rights of the people" to whom I 
had looked for succor were laboring diligently to de- 
feat those rights. 

My world had turned topsy-turvy. That was the 
beginning of a great disillusionment. I looked at 
things from thereforward with my own eyes, rather 
than through the colored lenses of an inspired press. 

I came to see that Martin Lomasney, so far from 
being the political ogre he has been painted, was after 
all a highly respected member of the legislature ; a 
man who never breaks his word, and who is usually 
found on the side of the people in any contest or 
debate. 

I even found, in three years of observation, that 
the very men who would go out in a political cam- 
paign and win their election by representing that un- 
less they were returned the "unspeakable Lomasney" 
would be elected Speaker of the House, would never- 
theless admit, in private conversation, that "Martin" 
was one of the squarest men in the Legislature. 

While I hold no brief for Lomasney, who may have 
conducted many questionable political transactions, 
yet I do hate hypocrisy and sham, and cry out against 
the injustice of depicting the champion of the masses 
as a villain and worker of darkness, but the cham- 
pions of the privileged classes heroes and saints — 
when their political methods are one and the same as 
any observing man who has watched them well 
knows. 

They say Lomasney has been known to turn a 
political trick to benefit his friends. The great and 

196 



A DOUBLE SHUFFLE 

mighty of the legislature are continually turning 
tricks for State Street and the interests, and strang- 
est of all, making a goat of Lomasney and "guardians 
of the dear public" of themselves. 



197 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 






CHAPTER XLIV. 

Victory in the Senate. 

To add to the chagrin of our opponents, it now oc- 
curred to them that had Speaker Grafton Gushing" ex- 
ercised the presence of mind to vote on our measure 
a tie vote would have resulted ; and the bill would 
accordingly have been defeated. But now the op- 
portunity had passed. 

It must have been that the opposition sensed the 
real situation in the Senate, and despaired of success 
in that quarter; for on the next day they adopted the 
desperate expedient of trying to secure reconsidera- 
tion of the measure. 

Anticipating this move, and alarmed indeed at the 
prospect, I spent the next forenoon "rounding up" 
our trustees. To tell the truth I found them in bellig- 
erent moods and ready for battle, for the newspapers 
had come out with stories of the debate. 

Mr. Boynton, Mr. Evans, Mr. Vahey, Mr. O'Gon- 
nell and General Bartlett each came to the State 
House in person; so all but one of our Trustees were 
in the thick of the fray, either in the House or the 
Senate corridors, conferring with their friends in each 
branch. 

Mr. Evans, who had been Republican leader of the 
Senate during the previous year, held an impromptu 
reception of his Republican brethren; while Mr. 

198 



VICTORY IN THE SENATE 

Vahey, with characteristic vigor, personally conversed 
with every Democratic Senator. General Bartlett and 
Mr. O'Connell added their influence to that of Mr. 
Vahey ; and the outlook for success in the Senate 
looked very favorable should we succeed in leaving 
the House in safety. 

Mr. Boynton, while working earnestly for our suc- 
cess, was a downright pessimist so far as the Senate 
was concerned. "I tell you, Mr. Archer, the Senate 
is the graveyard of all good bills," was a frequent 
sentiment with him. 

But every effort was put forth to prevent reconsid- 
eration of the previous day's vote in the House. Re- 
consideration must be voted if at all before the orders 
of the day were reached, and I was fearful lest our 
friends should fail to put in appearance early enough 
to prevent a successful demonstration by the opposi- 
tion. 

It was with fear and trembling that I surveyed 
the half empty House next day when Haines took 
the floor to move for reconsideration But the seats 
filled while the sharp debate was in progress. When 
the motion was put to vote, Haines lost by the over- 
whelming vote of 27 to 93. A roar of laughter went 
up at the result. Haines promptly doubted the vote 
and called for the ayes and nays ; but only a dozen 
or so responded to his call. Haines' last chance had 
faded away. The House was evidently tired of the 
long contest and disposed to leave us in possession of 
our hard won victory. 

The scene of battle now shifted to the Senate, and 
a merry battle it was. Senator Nason told me that 
great quantities of mail were already pouring in upon 
every member of the Senate, urging them to vote 

199 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

against the measure ; that unless something were 
done to counteract it, we would have great difficulty 
in passing the bill. 

By good fortune I had now gotten possession of 
two of Dean Speare's circular letters; sent me, by the 
way, by students of his own school who resented his 
action. Believing that copies of one of his letters 
would make many votes for us in the Senate I had 
prepared the following document which I mailed to 
every member of the Senate: 

To the Members of the Massachusetts Senate : 

I invite your attention to a letter which will ex- 
plain in a large measure the letters and protests that 
are being filed with you against the Suffolk School 
of Law. Please note the suggestion that the students 
of the Y. M. C. A. deceive you by pretending to act 
as disinterested "citizens ;" this from the head of the 
Young Men's Christian Association. This is only a 
sample of the methods used by our opponents. 
Respectfully yours, 

GLEASON L. ARCHER, 
Dean of the Suffolk School of Law. 
Feb. 12, 1912. 

(COPY.) 

ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE 

BOSTON YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN 

ASSOCIATION. 

February 9, 1912. 
To the Students of the Association Institute, 
Gentlemen : 

The Suffolk School of Law, a commercial enter- 
200 



VICTORY IN THE SENATE 

prise, conducted in Tremont Temple, is seeking to 
gain the right to grant degrees. They are being op- 
posed by Harvard University, Boston University, 
Tufts College, The Massachusetts Bar Association, 
and educators in general. They have seen fit to use 
the Association Law School as a sledge to break down 
the educational traditions and standards of the State, 
and force an entrance. 

The Bill has been reported for a third reading in 
the House, and then, if it passes, will go to the Senate. 
I therefore, write to urge you to at once get in touch 
with your Representative and Senator and urge them 
to vote against the measure. You need not necessa- 
rily state that you are identified with the Y. M. C. A., 
but approach him as a citizen. Please let nothing pre- 
vent your doing this, as you will be conferring a great 
benefit to all existing institutions and helping to up- 
hold the proud educational standards of the Common- 
wealth. 

If I have written to you previously, this letter sim- 
ply reinforces what was said before. The Bill comes 
up again in the House for discussion Monday after- 
noon, February 12th, so that immediate action is nec- 
essary. Please see these persons if possible ; if not, 
write or telephone. 

Yours very truly, 

FRANK PALMER SPEARE, 

Educational Director. 

Mr. Evans also came out with an open letter to the 
Senate urging the passage of our bill. 

Senators Nason and Hunt were the natural cham- 
pions of the bill in the Senate, being members of the 
committee that reported it. Senator Nason, however, 

201 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

took the most interest in the measure, and as he was 
recognized to be a skillful debater and aggressive in 
action, we were well pleased to have him become 
sponsor of the bill in case there should be a debate. 

That there would be a stiff battle in the Senate we 
had no doubt. Senator Harry N. Stearns, the Repub- 
lican leader of the Senate, a graduate of Harvard, was 
especially active in opposition to the bill, and it was 
reported that he would lead the opposition. 

The opening gun was fired in the Senate on Feb- 
ruary 19th, when Senator Stearns gave notice that 
he should on the next day move for the adoption of 
the following order. 

"Ordered that the Board of Education be requested 
to furnish the Senate with the following information: 

(i) What is the proper standard of instruction or 
efficiency to entitle a law school, or an educational 
institution giving instruction in law, to grant the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Laws? 

(2) Has the Suffolk School of Law, located in 
Tremont Temple, Boston, such a standard of instruc- 
tion and efficiency as to make it proper that it should 
be authorized to grant the degree of Bachelor of 
Laws?" 

I immediately got out a circular letter to the Sen- 
ators urging defeat of the Stearns order; because the 
State Board was not as well qualified to give this 
information as the Bar Examiners who had already 
declared the proper standard, which standard the 
Suffolk Law School fully complied with. I quoted 
from statistics to show that only four other evening 
law schools in the United States maintained a four 
year course, all the others three years or less. I also 
quoted in full a letter from the Chairman of the Board 

202 



VICTORY IN THE SENATE 

of Bar Examiners giving the bar examination record 
of our students and graduates. 

I had the satisfaction, when the Senate convened, 
on February 20th, of seeing the majority of the Sen- 
ators open their mail (they seem to make a practice 
of reading their mail during the formal Committee 
Report stage of the session) and observing the length 
of time spent with my letter. I sat in the gallery and 
could easily identify my letter by the school seal on 
the letterhead. 

The order was finally reached, and Senator Stearns 
opened the debate. After what I had experienced m 
the House debates, the Senate affair was mild by 
comparison. 

Snator Arthur L. Nason was the chief speaker for 
our side, but quite a number of short speeches were 
made on both sides before the matter was put to vote. 
On a roll call, the Stearns order was killed by the 
emphatic vote of 8 to 22, with four pairs. 

The bill was passed to a third reading without fur- 
ther opposition. Senator Stearns informed me that 
he was through ; that Speare's letter which I had 
mailed to the Senators had killed all chances of de- 
feating the measure, so I need expect no further 
trouble in the Senate. 

He was true to his word. On the following day 
the bill passed to engrossment and was soon returned 
to the House for the enactment stage. 



203 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XLV. 

The Bill Goes to Governor Foss. 

We now felt that all legislative dangers had been 
overcome and that our charter was as good as signed. 
Rumors came to us, however, that Haines would make 
a desperate effort to kill the bill on enactment. So 
alarming became these rumors that I sent the fol- 
lowing letter to every member of the House who had 
voted for our bill: — 

Dear Sir: 

The Suffolk Law School bill for which you so 
kindly voted has won an overwhelming victory in 
the Senate — 22 — 8. The bill will return to the House 
Monday for enactment. I have just learned that our 
opponents are planning to endeavor to kill the bill on 
enactment. Now, we have won fairly and honorably 
and I feel assured that you will do your utmost to 
prevent selfish partisans of a wholly selfish opposi- 
tion from depriving us of the fruits of victory. May 
we count upon you to be present without fail at 
Monday's session to vote for the enactment of our 
bill? 

Sincerely yours, 

GLEASON L. ARCHER, Dean. 
Feb. 23, 1912. 

204 



THE BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR FOSS 

But the bill did not return to the House Monday 
for enactment. Tuesday, February 27th, however, I 
was informed that the bill had been engrossed in 
concurrence,, and was then in the hands of the chair- 
man of the committee on engrossed bills, Walter R. 
Meins. It will be remembered that Mr. Meins was a 
firm friend of the school and had spoken for the bill 
twice in the House. 

It is a custom in the House, when bills are ready 
to be enacted, for the chairman of the committee to 
cause them to be placed on the speaker's desk and for 
the speaker, at the first lull in proceedings or during 
the formal part of the session, to present the bills to 
the House. In three years of observation I never saw 
but one attempt made to kill a bill on enactment, and 
that attempt was made on our bill. 

From my seat in the House gallery, I saw our bill 
placed on the speaker's desk. I noted with concern 
that he paid no attention to it. Several of our friends 
who were watching it went to the Speaker's desk to 
request action, but the Speaker declined. He did not 
in fact find it convenient to touch the bill until the 
business was over for the day and the members were 
leaving. 

He then called the bill very distinctly (not in the 
monotonous undertone customary with bills to be en- 
acted.) Haines sprang to his feet and moved to have 
the enactment clause of the bill stricken out. Such 
action would defeat the measure. Fortunately a few of 
our friends were in the chamber, and one of them, I 
have now forgotten who it was, challenged such action 
on the ground that there was not a quorum present. 
Such was the case, so the House was declared adjourned. 

The bill had been saved; for before the House con- 

205 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



i 



vened on the following day I had stationed friendly 
members of the House at every entrance to acquaint the 
other members as they arrived of the attempt to 
assassinate our charter. The indignation was so gen- 
eral that no further action was attempted. The bill 
was then enacted February 28th as a matter of regular 
routine in the House, and February 29th in the Senate. 
The fight had occupied six weeks of time. Having 
been "in the harness" over fifteen hours a day five days 
a week, I was so exhausted physically that it was with 
effort that I kept up at all. I had found the long after- 
noons in the legislature when waiting for our bill to be 
reached most exhausting of all. 

My friends had frequently urged me to give up my 
regular attendance, but I had persisted because I found 
that when any new move of the opposition was made 
instant action was our only salvation; and I dared not 
trust it to others who had many distracting duties that 
might blind them to what was going on. I was there 
with a single purpose, to watch the bill — and I watched 
it to the end. 

Now that the end of the long vigil had come I felt 
like taking a week's sleep ; but rumors had come to me 
with disconcerting frequency that Governor Foss would 
veto our bill. It seemed incredible that a Democratic 
Governor would veto a bill that had the support of every 
Democratic Senator and of eighty per cent, of the Dem- 
ocrats in the House. Both General Bartlett and Mr. 
Vahey, of our trustees, had been Democratic candidates 
for governor. To them, and to Mr. O'Connell, Foss 
owed in large measure his election as governor. That he 
would affront them by vetoing the bill — in effect to 
declare them unworthy to be entrusted with degree 
granting power — was absolutely beyond belief. 

206 



THE BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR FOSS 

But there was still another reason why Foss should 
not act. He was trustee of the Y. M. C. A. Law School, 
and, as an interested party, could not honorably veto 
the bill. 

But when I saw with my own eyes, as well as being 
credibly informed of other such happenings, that men 
who had fought our bill most persistently were lingering 
in the executive offices, I decided not to take chances on 
the governor, but to wait upon him with a delegation of 
our friends. 



207 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XL VI. 

Veto and Defeat. 

On the day that the bill was enacted in the Senate, 
February 29th, 1912, I gathered together the faculty and ^ 
four trustees, (General Bartlett, Mr. Boynton, Mr. 
Evans and myself), as a delegation to wait upon the gov- 
ernor. By good fortune, we met in the State House 
Judge Thomas P. Riley, then a close adviser of Foss. 
Judge Riley was a good friend of the school, and went 
with us to the governor's office. 

We were duly presented to the governor. The whole 
party stood, the governor himself standing, plump, sleek 
and self-satisfied, during the conference. Judge Riley 
was the first speaker. General Bartlett, Mr. Boynton and 
Mr. Evans also spoke. I myself spoke at some length, 
for the governor seemed disposed to ask me questions. 
They were the time worn objections that we had re- 
futed hundreds of times in the last six weeks. 

We departed somewhat besmeared with gubernatorial 
"soft soap," for the "Old Boy" was in fine fettle and up 
to his usual game of beguiling his intended victims 
with pleasant words. Not knowing the man, I was 
quite convinced of favorable action, and it came to me 
as a distinct shock when Judge Riley declared, when 
we reached the outer corridor, "I'm afraid the Old 
Boy will veto that bill. He acted just like it to me." 

That night I wrote a long letter to the governor, re- 
viewing all the arguments that had been advanced 

208 



THE BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR FOSS 

against the bill, answering them briefly, paying special 
attention to the question he had raised of why the State 
Board of Education should not be consulted. I quote 
this portion of the letter: "Now they are carrying these 
exploded arguments to you, and trying to induce you to 
do what the Committee on Education refused to do, 
what the House refused to do, what the Senate by an 
overwhelming vote refused to do — refer the matter to 
the State Board of Education." 

"After the attempt in the House had failed, our op- 
ponents repeatedly declared in debate that the Board 
of Education was opposed to the bill and urged that as 
a reason why the bill should be killed. Dean Speare, in 
one of his circular letters by which he directed the 
attack upon us, declared "All we desire is that the bill be 
referred to the State Board of Education," and in a 
letter written on the following day, a copy of which I 
gave you today, he asks the friends of the Y. M. C. A. 
to ask their Representatives and Senators to vote 
against the bill, thus demonstrating that he consid- 
ered reference to the Board as equivalent to killing 
the bill. 

"Now I ask you, as a common sense proposition, if 
your enemies should try repeatedly to drag you into a 
certain alley, would you not be justified in suspecting 
from that fact alone that that alley was not a healthy 
place for you? But we have positive evidence that the 
chairman of this Board, and the only lawyer on the 
Board, has without the slightest investigation declared 
his hostility to our bill. Therefore, we have double 
reason to shun this particular alley." 

On the following day I drew up a formal paper signed 
by all the incorporators, setting forth all the essential 
facts concerning the school, analyzing the vote in the 

209 



BUILDI^rc A SCHOOL 






House and Senate and closing with a strong appeal for 
favorable action. 

On this day, also, Mr. Vahey and Mr. O'Connell 
had separate conferences with the governor. Delega- 
tions from both House and Senate waited upon him in 
our behalf. 

But without notice to us, a fact which came to my 
knowledge a year later, the governor gave a secret hear- 
ing on our bill to which only the avowed enemies of the 
school were invited. The fact of this hearing was dis- 
closed to me in a remark dropped by WilHam G. Thomp- 
son, Esq., in December, 1912, nine months after it oc- 
curred. Mr. Thompson was one of those present. Upon 
questioning him he gave me the names of many of 
those who attended the hearing. 

The first positive evidence that I received of the gov- 
ernor's hostility was when, in response to a telephone 
request, I called at the office of the State Board of Edu- 
cation and found to my utter amazement that Governor 
Foss had referred the whole matter to Commissioner 
.Snedden. 

But most amazing of all was the fact that my personal 
letter to the Governor, in which I had paid my respects 
in no uncertain terms to the State Board, was upon Mr, 
Snedden's desk — doubtless to put him in a favorable 
frame of mind toward us. 

From that moment I was sure of the fate of our 
bill. The governor was seeking a pretext to veto it. 
That he would secure such a pretext from this 
source, I was as certain as that the sun would rise on 
the following day. 

Commissioner Snedden had called me to ask a few 
questions and arrange a hearing, to which I could 

210 



VETO AND DEFEAT 

bring one other of the trustees or faculty. I named 
Mr. Evans as my associate, and departed with the 
solemn assurance that I would be notified of the time 
and place of the hearing. But this promise was never 
kept. No hearing took place, and the first word that 
I received from Commissioner Snedden was that he 
had rendered his report to the governor, and he re- 
fused to show me even a copy of the report. 

The report, moreover, contained the grossly inac- 
curate statement that a charter once granted in Mas- 
sachusetts could not be revoked (a powerful reason 
for a veto if there was any question as to the rights 
of the matter) and had we been permitted to see it 
this statement would never have gotten into Foss's 
veto message, as it did. 

The learned commissioner later excused himself for 
this grave mistake by declaring that he got his infor- 
mation from Professor of Harvard Law School, a 

sad commentary on the legal knowledge of that dis- 
tinguished authority ; for the law laid down by the 
ancient Dartmouth College case, which the professor 
evidently had in mind, has been abrogated in Massa- 
chusetts by statute for over eighty years. 

The Educational Octopus had gotten us at la.st. 
Governor Foss vetoed the bill and incorporated Com- 
missioner Snedden's astonishing interpretation of law 
in his veto message. 

One more stormy day in the House, when the veto 
was acted upon, and our 1912 charter was quietly and 
decently interred. 

On the day of the veto I posted the following notice 
on the bulletin board and will ofifer it here as the epi- 
taph of our ill-fated measure: 

211 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

"To the Students : 

Governor Foss's veto of our bill will be fought to 
the last ditch, but if we fail to pass it over his veto, 
it will not affect the school in the slightest degree. 
The school will continue precisely as before. We 
have lost nothing that we possessed before the fight 
began, but in reality have gained much through the 
advertising that the school has received through the 
press. I thank the students one and all for the splen-| 
did spirit of loyalty they have manifested throughout. 

Gleason L. Archer." 
March 8, 1912. 

The incorporators issued a public statement scor- 
ing the governor for his action and prophesying that 
he would live to regret his action ; a prophecy that has 
in all probability been amply fulfilled. 



212 



i 



PREPARING FOR SECOND LEGISLATIVE CONTEST 



CHAPTER XL VII. 

Preparing for the Second Legislative Contest. 

The school year of 1911-1912, despite the great con- 
test in the legislature with its heavy demands upon 
my time, had been a most successful year from all 
points of viev/. My own courses in both departments 
had gone on much as usual, and they would have been 
the ones to suffer if any, owing to my personal activi- 
ties in the legislative contest. 

But a wonderful spirit of loyalty and good fellow- 
ship had sprung up in the school. There was not a 
luke-warm individual in the entire student body. It 
was then that we laid the firm foundation for the 
greater Suffolk Law School that now exists. Men 
cannot be drawn together into more certain unity of 
thought and action than by some common wrong or 
injustice that must be righted at their hands. 

The year 1912 saw perpetrated upon the Suffolk 
Law School a great injustice which roused in every 
student of the school a spirit of intense resentment, 
that translated itself into concerted action in the 
school's behalf and loyalty to the institution itself; 
for men love best that for which they have fought 
most valiantly. 

The January 1912 bar examinations had resulted 
in a splendid showing for the school. Our annual 
school banquet which occurred shortly after the veto 

213 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

contest, was a great success. The spirit of battle was 
strong among us. Everyone pledged his efforts to 
the defeat of our enemies in the legislature and vic- 
tory for the school on the following year. 

The close of school in May found no abatement of 
zeal either among the students or the corporation 
members. The sentiments of the latter may be 
judged from the fact that during the summer of 1912 
two sets of Massachusetts Reports were added to the 
school library, one the gift of General Charles W. 
Bartlett and the other presented by Wilmot R. Evans, 
Jr. These were the first gifts the school ever received 
from any person other than myself. 

I have neglected to mention that before our legis- 
lative fight began I had given the school to the cor- 
poration (so that it might not be attacked on the 
ground that it was a privately owned institution.) At 
the next meeting of the corportion this deed of gift 
had been formally accepted. Since that date, my 
connection with the institution has been merely that 
of an executive officer. The results have more than 
justified the sacrifice. 

The summer advertising campaign, after the wide 
publicity that the legislative contest had brought us, 
resulted in an increasing number of new students. 
When the school opened in September, 1912, we were 
gratified to learn that our total attendance had risen 
from 94 of the previous year to 108 students. 

The new men quickly assimilated the eager loyalty 
of the upper classmen; and by the time the Septem- 
ber primaries were over the entire student body were 
thirsting for battle ; to help our friends and to defeat 
our enemies. It will be remembered that the year 
1912 was the year of the national election, when the 

214 



PREPARING FOR SECOND LEGISLATIVE CONTEST 

Progressive Party made its appearance and stirred 
both the old parties to great activity. 

This also had its effect upon our students. "Bull 
Moose" were proudly wearing their "founders 
badges," and Democrats and Republicans were roam- 
ing the corridors; but on the subject of Foss and the 
legislative contest they were perfectly non-partisan. 

At the request of the students, I posted a list of the 
candidates for the legislature who had supported our 
bill and also those who had opposed it, leaving it to 
the students to do what they saw fit. But that they 
were making themselves felt I was not long in doubt, 
for many the dire threat was sent to me by distressed 
opponents of the school, who declared that they were 
being "shamefully knifed" by our students in their 
district. 

Even Haines made overtures of peace; but no at- 
tention was paid to his plea, for he had given me too 
many assurances during the legislative fight that he 
had abandoned his opposition, only to spring some 
new surprise upon us. Hence, we feared his prom- 
ises now. The whole spirit of the school seemed to 
be that we should teach the opposition that it was 
not a healthy political pastime to continue to oppose 
our bill in the legislature. 

When the November election occurred, although 
some of our friends had been defeated, the result was 
the signal for rejoicing among the students because 
of the defeat of many of our bitterest enemies. 

I sent out personal letters to every new member 
of the legislature, one clause of which was as follows: 
"All we desire is your free, unbiased judgment. We 
wish you to hear our story before making a decision, 
for we know from last year's experience that the op- 

215 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

position will speedily present their side of the case." 
I later mailed to each an illustrated booklet and a 
school catalogue. 

Although Governor Foss had been re-elected, we 
had nevertheless resolved to present our bill to the 
legislature of 191 3. Again we advertised the bill in 
the newspapers as required by law. 

There had in fact been a new law enacted in the 

spring of 1912, which provided that all educational in- 
stitutions applying thereafter for power to confer de- 
grees must be investigated and reported upon by the 
State Board of Education. This law was of course 
aimed at the Suffolk Law School, being fathered by 
Senator Stearns and supported by the Educational 
Trust. But we had not opposed its passage, believing 
so to do would injure our cause more than it would 
help it. The State Board with all its accumulated 
animosity would, therefore, have its opportunity to 
attack us before the legislature. 

From remarks that had been made the previous 
year, I divined that they would centre their whole at- 
tack upon our Day Department, which was of course 
our weakest point. The original charter had con- 
tained a provision that might be construed as giving 
our day department the right even to confer degrees 
of Doctor of Laws as well as the Bachelors degree. 

I reasoned, therefore, that since our Day Depart- 
ment was absurdly small, and a mere experiment, I 
could effectively checkmate the State Board and elim- 
inate much of the hostility of the day law schools 
by striking out the provision as to the Day Depart- 
ment in our 1913 charter. 

To plan was to act, for although some of the trus- 
tees were opposed to the plan, yet the majority fa- 

216 



PREPARING FOR SECOND LEGISLATIVE CONTEST 

vored the idea, so I drew the new charter in the form 
indicated. We received no new day students after 
1913 and continued the department only so long as 
to graduate those already enrolled, closing the Day 
Department officially in May, 1915. 



217 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XL VIII. 

The Bar Association Investigation. 

Late in December the first evidence of activity of 
the opposition developed. General Bartlett called me 
to his office one day and told me that William G. 
Thompson, Esq., a Harvard alumnus of very pro- 
nounced views, had told him that he was on a commit- 
tee of the Bar Association to investigate the school, 
and desired him to arrange the matter with me. 

I invited the gentleman in question to come with 
his committee and investigate as much as he desired. 
It may be mentioned in passing that the chairman of 
the committee was a man who had been president of 
the Corporation of the Y. M. C. A. Law School for 
many years ; that it consisted chiefly of men who were 
closely identified with the other law schools. 

The sub-committee that investigated the school 
were Mr. Thompson and Henry A. Wyman, formerly 
a professor in Boston University Law School. That 
the report would be adverse, I was as certain as that 
the two gentlemen were in my office when they made 
their first visit. This does not by any means reflect 
upon the integrity of either, for they are both able 
and conscientious men, but they were so hopelessly 
prejudiced that there was no possibility of reporting 
except in one way. 

218 



BAR ASSOCIATION INVESTIGATION 

Mr. Thompson himself is a picturesque character, 
large and ruddy of countenance, very aggressive of 
manner, and the most outspoken lawyer that it was 
ever my fortune to meet. 

As an example of his refreshing frankness, he an- 
nounced the purpose of his first visit to the school 
something in this manner: 

"I don't want this job of investigation. From your 
standpoint, I'm probably the worst lawyer in the city 
of Boston to investigate you. I don't mind telling you 
candidly that I don't believe any evening school should 
have the right to confer degrees. If I had my way I 
would shut up every law school in the United States, 
Harvard included, for six years. There are too many 
lawyers already." 

In spite of his prejudice, however, he and Mr. Wy- 
man set about their work with conscientious thorough- 
ness. They visited lectures, and also gave a hearing 
before making their report. They had the courtesy, 
moreover, to give me a copy of the report before it 
went to the Committee on Education. 

While the conclusion of their report was adverse, I 
was surprised and pleased at some of the genuine com- 
pliments paid to the school and to me. 

In one place in the report it was said : "Mr. Archer 
has had little experience in the practice of law, but he 
appears to us to have considerable natural gifts as a 
teacher, and a genuine interest in teaching." 

Again, "One cannot, however, pass from the subject 
of Mr. Archer's books without expressing admiration 
for the energy and ability which have enabled him un- 
der such difficulties and at such an early age to occupy 
a place in the field of respectable legal authorship." 

219 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Of the school, the report declares: "We were im- 
pressed by the spirit of interest, earnestness and strong 
desire to learn manifested by the students at the lec- 
tures which we attended. The discussions carried on 
between instructors and pupils were intelligent and in- 
teresting." 

Again, "In the course of this investigation, we have 
acquired a respect for Mr. Archer and the instructors 
of the Suflfolk School of Law whose work we observed. 
We do not think they should be charged with mercen- 
ary or other improper motives. The students of the 
Sufifolk School of Law receive more than adequate re- 
turn for the tuition which they pay." 

Their conclusion was, "It also seems to us clear be- 
yond reasonable doubt that it would be a serious and 
unwarranted departure from the high standards and 
traditional policy of this Commonwealth in regard to 
institutions of higher education to confer upon the 
Suffolk School of Law the power to grant the degree 
of Bachelor of Laws or any other degree." 



220 



BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

The Board of Education's "Investigation." 

It will be remembered that Dr. Snedden of the 
State Board of Education had made a lengthy report to 
Governor Foss on our bill. In this report he stated 
that it was highly desirable that a careful investigation 
should be made "with special reference to the scope, 
fitness and probable success of the Suffolk Law 
School in maintaining the standards of legal educa- 
tion." 

Shortly after this and through the agency of Sen- 
ator Stearns and others who had opposed our bill, a 
law was enacted, (Chapter 481, Acts of 1912) giving 
the State Board power to make the investigation re- 
ferred to, and providing that the State Board's report 
should be forwarded to the legislature during the first 
week of the session. 

I notified the Board in November that the school 
would present a new petition to the legislature. I 
naturally expected prompt action on their part, but 
not until January 3rd, 1913, did I hear in any way 
from the Board. On that day, however, they filed 
with me a list of seventeen interrogatories which I 
answered in writing. 

One week later I received a letter which speaks for 
itself. 

221 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Massachusetts Board of Education 

Ford Building, Boston. 
January lo, 1913. 
Mr. Gleason L. Archer, 

Tremont Temple Building, Tremont St., 
Boston, Massachusetts. 
"At a meeting of the Board of Education today, a 
special committee composed of Mr. Fish, Mr. Conant 
and Miss Arnold were appointed to take such action 
as may be necessary in connection with the submis- 
sion of the Board's recommendations to accompany 
your petition to the legislature. 

"Mr. Fish and Miss Arnold live in Boston, and I 
can arrange that you meet them sometime next week. 
Mr. Conant is Dean of the Polytechnic Institute in 
Worcester, and inasmuch as he must leave for the 
west next Wednesday, he begs that you will endeavor 
to see him in Worcester, Monday at three o'clock in 
the afternoon, which hour he will reserve for you. I 
am sorry to have to trouble you, but since Mr. Conant 
is a very busy man, I must ask you to endeavor to see 
him on that date and explain your case to him. 

"I will communicate with you later about seeing 
Miss Arnold and Mr. Fish. 

Yours very truly, 

(Signed) David Snedden." 

January 11, 1913. 
Dr. David Snedden, 

Ford Building, Boston. 
Dear Dr. Snedden, — 

"Your letter reached me by special delivery last 
evening but, as it was then too late for me to get in 

222 



BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 

touch with any of my associates on the Board of 
Trustees of the school, I could not answer until today. 

"I see no reason why I should go to Worcester to in- 
terview Mr. Conant, even though he is "a very busy 
man" and will depart for the west next Wednesday. 
He was appointed to the committee yesterday, and I 
presume the Board of Education was well aware of 
the limited time at his command. 

"We have already had too much of these investiga- 
tions on paper. Our school is in Tremont Temple. If 
your committee desire to make an investigation they 
should make it as the sub-committee of the Bar Asso- 
ciation did — by actual visit at the school when it was 
in session, supplemented by conferences and a hearing. 
We have always been ready to give anybody who de- 
sired to investigate our school the fullest opportunity 
to do so. 

"Perhaps you will remember that last year the op- 
ponents of our bill struggled for six weeks to have it 
referred to the State Board of Education. We opposed 
such reference because we were credibly informed that 
the chairman and only lawyer on the board had with- 
out the slightest investigation, openly condemned our 
school. The bill was not referred to your board. 

"When the bill went to the Governor for his signa- 
ture, he called upon you as an expert for your opinion. 
You promised me that we should have a hearing on 
the matter before you reported to the Governor, and 
were to notify me of the date. You did not notify me 
and we had no hearing. You sent a long letter to the 
Governor, in which you stated as an expert that, "in 
Massachusetts, when the power is once given to issue 
degrees, the State exercises no further supervision and 

223 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

under existing laws, is not able to rescind the author- 
ity once given." This statement was inaccurate in 
every respect, although uttered in ignorance — but an 
ignorance that was inexcusable under the circum- 
stances. For more than eighty years it has been the 
law in this state that the legislature could amend, al- 
ter, or repeal the charter of any corporation created 
by it or under general laws. (See Mass. R. L. Chap. 
109.) 

"You further recommended that the bill be vetoed 
(or called for a delay which meant veto) so that the 
State Board of Education could have ample time to 
investigate. The governor followed your suggestion 
and vetoed our bill. 

"Then, in order that your board have power to in- 
vestigate, a bill was passed authorizing such investi- 
gation and calling for a report from your board during 
the first week of the legislative session. 

"Our school has been in session for a total of seven 
months since the governor's veto; yet no member of 
the State Board of Education has ever visited our 
school, nor even talked with any of the school officials 
concerning it. In November, I suggested to you the 
advisability of investigation, and also spoke to another 
member of the board concerning it. We advertised in 
the newspapers as required by law. On January i, 
1913, I filed with you our petition, as required by law. 
On Jan. 3rd, you sent me a set of interrogatories to be 
answered in writing, which answers I returned to you 
January 7th. 

"Now, after the school has closed for our annual 
mid-year vacation of two weeks — and two days after the 
time set by statute for your report on our bill has ex- 

224 



BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 

pired — your board appoints a committee of three to 
investigate our school. One of them must leave Mass- 
achusetts on Wednesday. Of the two remaining mem- 
bers, one is the very person to whose prejudiced atti- 
tude we objected twelve months ago. 

"It is a great hardship and handicap to us to be in- 
vestigated when our school is closed for vacation, but 
if we can have notice of a hearing, we will endeavor 
to get together some of our corporation and faculty 
members and meet your committee as a committee, 
somewhere in Boston, preferably at the school." 

Very truly yours, 

GLEASON L. ARCHER, 

Dean. 

Some days after this correspondence Miss Arnold 
called at my office, full of righteous indignation ; and 
upbraided me for obliging the members of the sub-com- 
mittee to call at the school and waste their valuable 
time. She reminded me reproachfully that the Board 
were not paid for their services. I defended myself 
mildly on the ground that we had fought for six weeks 
in the legislature the previous year to avoid troubling- 
the distinguished Board ; but that the zeal of the oppo- 
sition, including certain members of the Board, had 
prevailed against us. 

On January 20th, Mr. Fish, busy, bustling and bellig- 
erent, honored me with a call. We had a few minutes of 
interesting and lively conversation and he departed. The 
report had already been "tentatively" drawn before 
Mr. Fish called, as was admitted by Dr. Snedden at 
the time. It was now filed with the legislature. 

225 



BUILDING A SCHOOL I 

This was all the investigation ever made of our school 
by the State Board of Education which opposed our 
school so zealously during the three years of our con- 
test. That it was unfair and inadequate is obvious to 
everybody. 

The Board in the report which it filed with the 
legislature advanced four tests as the criterion for 
law schools and ruled against our school because it did 
not meet these tests. In answer to their report, I issued 
a pamphlet entitled "State Board of Education vs. Suf- 
folk Law School," from which the following is an ex- 
tract : 

THE FOUR TESTS PROPOSED. 

I, "A resident faculty, whose chief purpose it is to 
give instruction required by the institution," etc. In other 
words, they believe that a lawyer who teaches one even- 
ing or two evenings a week (none of our instructors 
teach on more than two of the three school evenings), 
should abandon his private practice and devote 
himself entirely to the work. Could any body of 
sane men propose such a test if seeking a bona fide 
objection to our school? A live lawyer can carry 
on his practice and still do ample justice to one or 
two evenings a week of teaching, as the State Board 
well know, for all the teachers at the Y. M. C. A. 
L,aw School carry on their private practice ; prac- 
tically every member of the faculty at Boston University 
Law School maintains his private practice, even to Dean 
Albers himself ; and at Harvard Law School, where they 
pay princely salaries, many of the faculty practice law. 
In other words, the State Board have proposed a test 
for our school that no other law school in Massachusetts 

226 



BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 

could meet, and I cannot credit them with such utter 
ignorance of conditions as to suppose that they are una- 
ware of that fact. The first test is, therefore, abso- 
lutely unfair and valueless. 

2. "An adequate endowment, etc." This point has 
been fully covered under interrogatory 14* and the 
reader is respectfully referred to the answer to the same 
as submitted to the State Board of Education. After 
reading the answer, the reader may draw his own con- 
clusions as to whether this test is a fair one. 

3. "Affiliation with other institutions of higher learn- 
ing." If it is a disqualification for a professional school 
to be unaffiliated it does not appear that the Massachu- 

* Question 14. How is the financial future of the school guar- 
anteed? 

Answer. As to the financial future of the school, perhaps no 
more reassuring picture could be drawn than that indicated by 
an eminent expert on Evening Law Schools, Frank Palmer 
Speare, for fifteen years dean of the Y. M. C. A. Law School. 
He spoke in opposition to our bill last year before the legisla- 
tive committee. He declared that, owing to the fact that even- 
ing law sciiools needed very little and in the way of equipment 
and could be run at comparatively small expense, they possessed 
tremendous money making possibilities. 

If that is true, then endowment is unnecessary. It can very 
easily be demonstrated that evening law schools, unlike day 
law schools, can be run at a very modest figure, so that with a 
patronge of even one-third of the evening students now study- 
ing law schools needed very little in the way of equipment 
a margin to cover all necessary expenses. As for "tremendous 
money making possibilities," that can only exist when one school 
has a monopoly of the granting of degrees and a resulting at- 
tendance of four-fifths of the evening students of Massachu- 
setts. If there should be a decline in the number of students so 
that endowment became necessary, it is reasonabl to suppose 
that as the school grows older in a community traditionally so 
liberal to educational institutions as Massachusetts, it will 
readily receive the modest endowment that would suffice for 
all its needs. 

227 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

setts Institute of Technology has been in any way handi- 
capped because it has no college, divinity, or medical 
school connected with it. In fact it would appear that a 
Board of Trustees who could give undivided attention to 
a single department, could accomplish greater results 
than if their attention were divided among several de- 
partments. For instance, a Board of Trustees, all of 
whom are lawyers, as in the case of our school, ought to 
be able to run a law school far better than they could run 
a university with departments of law, arts, medicine, 
divinity, etc. 

Furthermore, there are eighteen evening law schools 
in the United States, not connected with colleges or uni- 
versities, that can confer degrees. 

4. "Supervision by some body directly responsible to 
the State and not financially interested in the institution." 

As for the fourth test I have reason to believe that the 
State Board are not advancing this argument in good 
faith, but merely as another trumped up reason why they 
should hold against our school. The reason for my 
statement is this : 

Mr. Fish advanced this argument in conversation with 
me January 20, 191 3, and Dr. Hamilton and Commis- 
sioner Snedden were present at the time. I assured 
Mr. Fish that we would favor the creation of such a su- 
pervising body, and proposed to him that the State Board 
recommend to the present legislature the creation of the 
body referred to. He hesitated and, when I pressed 
him upon the matter he astonished me by replying, "It 
would not be wise at present; Massachusetts isn't ready 
for it. The time isnt ripe." He made this statement in 
the presence of the two gentlemen to whom I have 
already referred. I assured him that I considered his 
attitude very extraordinary — opposing our school be- 

228 



BOARD OF EDUCATION'S "INVESTIGATION" 

cause this body had not yet been created, and yet refus- 
ing to create such a body because the time was not ripe. 
The four tests proposed by the State Board are, 
therefore, virtually an acknowledgment by that body that 
they cannot find genuine fault with our school and in 
their frantic endeavor to find some justification for an 
adverse repoirt, they have invented these specious tests." 



229 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER L. 

Before the Committee on Education, 1913. 

When Speaker Gushing announced the legislative 
committees for the season of 1913, we had immediate 
misgivings. It was at once evident that at least five 
members of the Committee as named were enemies of 
the school, for they had served during the previous 
year; and we feared that out of the members who 
were serving their first legislative term, and of whom 
we had no record, there would be one or more to 
espouse the cause of the opposition. 

It was commonly reported that the committee was 
"packed" against us, and that we were listed for de- 
feat in the committee. 

The situation was a critical one, for an adverse 
committee report would render much more difficult 
the passage of the bill. It should be added that our 
only hope of success in case of another veto was to 
pass the bill over the veto, which required a two 
thirds vote in each branch. So defeat in committee, 
even though the report was overturned by the House 
and Senate, would assuredly defeat all chances of a 
two thirds vote. 

The committee hearing was listed for February 
13th, and was very largely attended. There was prac- 
tically no opposition except for the hostile report of 
the State Board of Education. Because of the wide 

230 



BEFORE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, 1913 

interest in the bill, called forth by the previous yearV 
contest, the newspapers now gave the progress of the 
bill ample attention. I cannot better summarize the 
hearing before the committee than by quoting from 
the Boston Record of that date. 

SOFPOLK LIIW JfiHOOL DEGREES 

The committee on education gave a hearing on the 
bill to permit the Suffolk Law School to grant the de- 
gree of LL.B., the same bill which passed both 
branches of the legislature last year, but was vetoed 
by Gov. Foss at the suggestion of the state board of 
education. Ex-Rep. Walter R. Meins appeared for the 
petition. He said the school has been incorporated 
for seven years and has at present 150 students. It 
has graduated 30 students, of whom 24 have success- 
fully passed the bar examinations. 

The bill was vetoed last year by Gov. Foss, acting 
upon information which the petitioners believe was 
erroneous. The report of the board of education to 
him stated that the granting of this right to the school 
would be irrevocable. Such is not the case. The leg- 
islature can at any time rescind or revoke a right 
granted by a previous legislature, and would undoubt- 
edly do so if sufficient cause was shown. 

Another reason given for the veto was that oppor- 
tunity had not been offered for full and complete in- 
vestigation of the school. That opportunity has since 
been afforded, and the results of that investigation are 
before the committee. 

Several years ago the legislature granted the right 
to grant degrees to the Y. M. C. A. law school. There 

231 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

is no good reason why a similar right should not be 
granted to the Sufifolk school. This is an evening law 
school where young men who cannot give their days 
to study can qualify as members of the bar. Its stand- 
ards are high and it has the endorsement and support 
of some of the best-known lawyers in Boston. 

Charles W. Bartlett, a trustee of the school, said 
that every opportunity has been given for thorough 
investigation of the school by the committee of the 
Bar Ass'n. This is a very important crisis in the 
state's handling of institutions of learning. The grad- 
uates of this school are ornaments to their profession 
and to the legislature itself. There is no good reason 
why an evening high school should not have the op- 
portunity to produce men and lawyers if its stand- 
ards are high enough. 

METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 

Gleason L. Archer, dean of the Suffolk School of 
Law, called attention to the mode adopted by the 
state board of education to investigate the institution 
upon which it filed its report. The order for an in- 
vestigation was passed by the last legislature, and the 
state board of education did not turn a hand towards 
making any investigation until the first of January of 
this year. At that time two of the members of the 
state board of education called at the office of the 
dean of the Sufifolk School, "looked over the office 
furniture," according to Dean Archer, and after ask- 
ing a few perfunctory questions, concluded its investi- 
gation. 

The state board have not attempted to study the 
standards of study in the institution ; have not at- 
tended the sessions of the school, and their report is 

232 J- 

1 



BEFORE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, 1913 

based on the most superficial investigation. It is this 
report, based on that investigation that the legislature 
is asked to accept as determining the question in is- 
sue. 

^'BOARD WAS HOSTILE." 

Dean Archer called attention also to the hostility 
of the state board of education to his institution, 
Frederick P. Fish, the president of the board, before 
the matter even came before the legislature, at the last 
session, made the statement in the presence of Dr. 
Snedden that he was opposed to the measure. 

Dean Archer then went on to explain the work of 
his school. He explained that no student can grad- 
uate who has not at least a high school education or 
its equivalent. The standard of the school is as high 
as that of any evening law school. The instructors 
are all practicing attorneys of experience and training. 
Every facility afforded by other evening law schools 
in the country are afforded to the students of the Suf- 
folk School of Law. He reviewed in detail the work 
of the school, calling attention to the success of these 
students who have been admitted to practice." 

For some days after the hearing we were in doubt as 
to the result. The exultation of our opponents, how- 
ever, led them to commit the fatal error of delay after 
they had won in committee. One of them tauntingly 
advised us that the report of "leave to withdraw" 
would be filed the next day, and advised us scornfully 
to get a certain member of the committee to vote for 
the bill ; for a change of one vote would give us the 
victory — the committee being divided 6 to 5 against us. 

We accepted his challenge. Before the session 
opened the next day one of our students, who was a 

233 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

popular representative from the senatorial district of 
the member referred to, stirred up so formidable a 
tempest for the worthy senator that he actually re- 
versed his vote and sulkily agreed to sign the bill if it 
w^ere brought to him. 

The representative in question hurried to House 
Chairman Haines to acquaint him with the Senator's 
change of front. The report had already been filed 
with the clerk of the House. It was not too late, how- 
ever, to recall the report; it not having been read in 
the House. So the bill was rushed over to the Senate 
for the desired signature. 

Thus it was that we won the contest in committee. 
The line up of the committee is sufficiently indicated in 
the following quotation from the Boston Journal of 
that date : — 

"The committee on education has at last been able 
to sit down for a seance with the Suffolk School of 
Law problem. As understood now. Representatives 
Haines, Armstrong, Sanborn, Wood and Grady are 
against granting the request of the petitioners. Rep- 
resentatives Lawler, Greenwood, Morill, Halley, Ross 
and Clark are reporting for it. 

"The delay was because of the absence of Senator 
Ross and a doubt in the mind of Dr. Clark. There 
will be a mighty sharp battle in the Legislature over 
it, a battle which promises to be as long continued as 
that of a year ago, when it became a fighting issue." 



234 



THE BILL PASSES THE LEGISLATURE 



CHAPTER LI. 

The Bill Passes the Legislature. 

The question of who would champion our bill in the 
House of 1913 had given us much anxious thought, for 
Representative Parks, who had fought so ably for its 
passage, was no longer in the legislature, having been 
appointed to the newly-created Industrial Accident 
Board. 

It soon became apparent however that Representa- 
tive James F. Griffin of Ward 22, Boston, who was 
now a student in the school, could be relied upon to 
watch the bill and battle for its interests as valiantly 
as Parks had done. Two other representatives had 
recently enrolled at the school, Edward N. Dahlborg 
of Brockton, and John J. Murphy of South Boston. 
With their able assistance I had no fear of the issue 
in the House. 

The bill was in charge of Fred P. Greenwood for the 
Committee on Education. But when the debate oc- 
curred, February 25, 191 3, that gentleman was una- 
voidably absent and Charles S. Lawler of Boston, also 
a member of the committee, took his place. 

The debate itself was very mild in comparison with 
the previous year's contest. Representative Haines 
led the opposition as previously, but not with the old 
time animosity. He had already begun to manifest 

235 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

symptoms of that change of view that arrayed him on 
our side in the following year. The burden of his ar- 
gument was the fact that the State Board of Educa- 
tion and the Bar Association were opposed to the 
granting of the charter. 

Representative Griffin, in reply, scored the State 
Board of Education and warmly defended the school. 

Armstrong of Somerville and Duncan of Clinton op- 
posed the measure, while Lawler of Boston, Underhill 
of Somerville, John J. Murphy of Boston and Morrill 
of Haverhill spoke in defense of the bill. 

To my surprise and delight the bill was passed to a 
third reading on a voice vote. I had expected that the 
opposition would demand a roll call, but they did not. 
On the following day the bill passed to engrossment. 

Considerable newspaper notice was elicited by the 
debate and its result. One Boston newspaper, the Rec- 
ord, came out with an editorial approving the action 
of the House. 

In the Senate we had a new situation to meet, for 
practically every senator who had spoken for our bill 
the previous year was no longer a member of that 
body, while nearly all our opponents in that body, 
with some reinforcements, were still in evidence. By 
good fortune we persuaded Senator Claude L. Allen 
of Melrose to champion the bill. 

There was a long delay on one pretext or another, 
and it was not until March ii, 1913, that the bill came 
up for debate in the Senate. I was an interested spec- 
tator in the Senate gallery when Senator Stearns 
opened up his verbal batteries against the bill. Al- 
though Senator Allen was not a member of the Com- 
mittee on Education, and had not heard our presenta- 

236 



THE BILL PASSES THE LEGISLATURE 

tion of the case, yet the delay in the senate had given 
me ample time to supply him with all necessary in- 
formation. 

That he used such information very skilfully in the 
senate debate is unquestioned. He quoted facts and 
figures so convincingly that other senators rallied to 
Steam's support. 

Senator Fisher, with much sound and fury, plunged 
into the debate with the announcement that he was 
"going to tear the mask from the whole proposition," 
but Senator Allen sharply demanded his authority for 
his absurd charges, and he was obliged to lamely con- 
fess that he had no proofs except his "own intuition 
and common sense." 

Senator Allen further punctured Fisher's charges of 
"money-making institution" by showing that the total 
revenues of the school did not exceed $5,000 a year — 
hence that it could not be a source of profit to anyone. 

Senator John H. Mack also spoke in favor of the 
bill. 

On a voice vote the bill was rejected, as all bills are 
when there is opposition and the presiding officer is 
himself opposed. Half a dozen men can shout "no" 
louder than twice that number can shout "yes" ; partly 
because of the greater ease of speaking the word, 
but also because they have the advantage of having 
heard the exact volume of sound of the "yes" vote. 

A roll call was ordered and there was a great scurry- 
ing to and fro in the Senator chamber. Senators came 
in from the lobby and cloak rooms. When the vote 
was recorded we had won by a vote of 17 to 10, with 
four pairs. 

237 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

A third reading had already taken place without 
opposition, so this vote was on engrossment. Once 
more the Suffolk Law School charter had passed suc- 
cessfully through both branches of the legislature. 
Within three days the measure was in the governor's 
office, awaiting executive action. But the Educational 
Octopus had been intrenched in the executive offices 
for some days. 



2,^8 



THE "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 



CHAPTER LII. 

The "Pleasant Easter" Episode. 

We had hoped that the passage of the bill for a 
second time through the legislature, especially by so 
sweeping a majority, would influence Governor Foss 
to at least permit it to become a law without his signa- 
ture. Some more optimistic political prophets de- 
clared that now that he realized how popular the 
measure had become he would sign it as a bid for 
popularity. 

The governor was then in the midst of one of his 
comedy turns. This was his third term and he had 
likened his terms of office to three pieces of pie and 
hinted that he would like a fourth piece. The news- 
papers had made much of it and he was taking advan- 
tage of his opportunity by frequent allusions to his ap- 
petite for pie. Popularity was what he most needed, 
for no governor for many years had ever been given 
a fourth term. The Democratic lieutenant-governor, 
David I. Walsh, was his logical successor and, should 
Foss run again, Walsh must either openly oppose him 
in the primaries or be delayed another year. The 
interest taken by politicians and citizens in the Foss 
candidacy was therefore considerable. 

Immediately upon enactment of the bill in the legis- 
lature the students of the Suffolk Law School drew 
up a petition to the Governor asking him not to veto 

239 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

the bill without at least giving a public hearing at 
which both friends and enemies of the bill could be 
heard. 

In commenting upon this editorially, the Boston 
Journal remarked : 

"There is an element of real pathos in the make-up 
of the petition which has been sent to Governor Foss 
from the students of the Suffolk Law School begging 
that, if he has thought of vetoing the bill this year, 
that they be given a public hearing at which they can 
set forth their case. It may be that the document in 
question has been framed by some clever attorney 
for the school, but there is a ring of fair play in it 
that commands attention," 

The allusion to "clever attorney" in the editorial 
was of course unfounded, for it was the work of the 
students, drawn up in my office and merely submitted 
to me for approval. 

On the following day I wrote an open letter to the 
Governor, reviewing the entire situation and present- 
ing the strongest argument of which I was capable, 
in an effort to influence him to allow the twice-re- 
peated verdict of the legislature to stand. This letter 
attracted some newspaper comment and I was much 
gratified to have the Boston Advertiser come out with 
a strong editorial review of the letter, its opening and 
closing sentences being as follows : — 

"The appeal which Dean Archer of the Suffolk Law 
School has made to the governor is strong and con- 
vincing. * * Governor Foss should approve the 
bill." 

Every legitimate effort was put forth to counteract 
the manifest activity of the opposition. One of the 
strongest moves that we made at that time was when 

240 



THE "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 

I interviewed Grenville S. MacFarland, one of the 
most influential advisers of the Governor, Mr, Mac- 
Farland is a man of great ability and breadth of 
vision. After a careful survey of the matter he warmly 
espoused our cause and had repeated conferences with 
the Governor in our behalf. 

Under the law in Massachusetts if a bill remains in 
the Governor's office for five days without the lat- 
ter's signature it automatically becomes a law. Day 
after day passed and no veto was reported. The last 
day for executive action was Saturday, March 22, 1913. 
When noon came and no news from the bill I aban- 
doned the long vigil, for the State Houses closes at 
that hour, and returned to my home in Woburn, 

Mr, O'Connell was to see the Governor to make a 
last appeal sometime during the day. At two o'clock 
I received a telephone message from Mr. O'Connell, 
saying that the Governor had just declared to him 
that his only objection was that he feared that the 
school was a "commercial enterprise" (one of the 
arguments that had been refuted a hundred times dur- 
ing the two years,) This news convinced me that 
there was no hope, 

A few minutes later I telephoned Henry Berlin, the 
newspaper reporter who had rendered such signal 
service to the school during the long contest, and 
told him what I had heard. The bill had not then 
been vetoed, Mr. Berlin suggested that I telephone 
personally to the Governor, for it could not make mat- 
ters any worse than they evidently were. 

The more I thought of it the better I liked the idea,, 
for I always prefer action to inaction even though the 
result may be the same, I called the Governor's office 
and learned that he was at lunch at a certain hotek 

241 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

I called the hotel and was quickly put into communi- 
cation with the Governor. It was then about 2 :30 
P. M. 

I apologized for calling him at such a time, but as 
this was the last day for action on the bill I desired 
to correct any erroneous impression that he might 
be entertaining concerning the school. I called his 
attention to the Bar Association report that had espe- 
cially exonerated the school from the charge of "com- 
mercialism." 

But he declared that he was not troubled on that 
score at all — it was the adverse report of the State 
Board of Education. 

I said, "Governor, I wish I could have had the 
opportunity to tell you the real facts about the oppo- 
sition of the State Board." 

"It isn't too late now," he declared very heartily. 
"Come right in and see me. Come to my office in the 
State House at 4 o'clock." 

I told him that I was so far out of the city that I 
could not reach the State House before 4:30 P. M. 
He set the date for our conference at that hour. 

I made haste to reach Boston on time, and at 4:20 
was at the State House. The Governor had not re- 
turned and was not expected back, for the executive 
offices were deserted. I hunted up Henry Berlin in 
the press room, and we talked over the likelihood of 
the Governor's return. 

While we were in conversation on the stairs over- 
looking the entrance to the executive department, 
Governor Foss and another man hove in sight. They 
approached the rear door of the executive offices, 
beside the elevator. The Governor opened the door 
with a pass key and entered, with his companion. 

242 



THE "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 

After a moment I approached the door and knocked. 
It was some time before I was admitted, but pres- 
ently the man I had seen with the Governor opened 
the door and admitted me. I sat down for a moment 
until the Governor called me into his private office. 

He introduced me to his companion, Daniel J. 
Kiley, and asked me to draw up my chair. 

"This man, Archer," he told Kiley, laughingly, "is 
the most persistent man that ever came before the 
legislature." 

He fairly embarrassed me with compliments until 
I came back at him with this remark: "I have often 
heard that you were some 'jollier,' Governor. Now I 
am sure of it. But if you regard me so highly why 
don't you sign my bill?" 

Thereupon we launched into a long discussion of 
the measure. No man could have exhibited more sin- 
cere and earnest attention than did Governor Foss. 
Every objection that he raised I answered fully until 
he dismissed it as of no further concern to him. I 
gave him a history of the school, and a vivid account 
of how we had been treated by the opposition during 
the legislative contest. He expressed his surprise and 
indignation, especially at the State Board of Educa- 
tion, and declared that he was going to give them a 
"call down" for it. 

He waxed reminiscent and told of his own boyhood 
struggles, which gave me a good chance to remark to 
Mr. Kiley, "Does it seem possible that a man who has 
been through such experiences would veto a bill that 
gives a poor boy a chance to get an education?" 

Foss laughed, and repeated as he had a dozen times 
during the interview, "You're going to win. They can't 

243 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

stop you. You've made a good fight and you deserve to 
win." 

When I pressed him for a definite answer, he evaded 
the issue; although several times during the interview 
I heard him say over the telephone that he was still con- 
sidering the bill and was then "in conference with Dean 
Archer." 

Our interview lasted for an hour and a half. When 
I rose to go I reminded the governor that the next day 
was Easter Sunday and that my sick wife (the governor 
well knew, for I had told him, that she was near nerv- 
ous breakdown because of the sudden death of our baby 
boy a few weeks before,) would be greatly cheered if 
I could tell her that Governor Foss was going to allow 
our bill to become a law. 

"It's all right," he assured me, "you go home and 
don't you worry." 

He accompanied me to the next room where I had left 
my coat. I had exhausted every means of securing a 
direct avowal, but now I made a last attempt. 

"The case has been tried twice before the legislature 
of Massachusetts and we have won both times. Why 
not let this second verdict stand? If you have vetoed 
the bill, governor, withdraw that veto." 

I hoped thus to surprise him into saying that there 
was no veto, for if there was then no veto in existence 
it was too late to file one, for the clerk's offices of both 
branches were closed and had been for hours. 

His response to my query was to take my hand in 
both of his at parting, and, with "tears in his voice," to 
assure me that I deserved to win ; he was proud to 
know me as a man, and that his office would be open to 
me at all times — come when I would. 

244 



THE' "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 

I pressed him again for a definite answer, and he 
assured me fervently that I need not worry at the out- 
come. 

I hurried home, full of happy assurance that the long, 
nerve-wracking contest was over. All the evening 
newspaper reporters were calling me to learn what Foss 
had said to me, for the fate of the bill was a mystery 
that excited the interest of every Sunday paper in 
Boston. 

I was finally assured that no veto had been filed and 
that the Governor had gone to his home for the night. 

Sunday morning dawned — Easter Sunday — and a 
reporter informed me that he had talked with the Gov- 
ernor by telephone and had been assured that he had 
not vetoed the bill. The Boston Sunday Post came 
out w^ith the following article : 

LIIIN SCilOOL OEGEjILL iT VETOEO 

Hard Fought Measure Became Law At Midnight. 



"The bill which would allow the Suffolk Law School 
to confer degrees has probably become a law. The Gov- 
ernor legally had no longer than until midnight last 
night to file a veto with the clerk of the House. At 
midnight no veto had been filed. 

It was impossible to file any, because Clerk Kimball 
left after waiting until 6 o'clock, and the messengers on 
duty all night had admitted nobody to the clerk's office 
thereafter. 

In order to file a veto message it would have been 
necessary for one to force an entrance. 

245 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

A veto had been expected all day, but the governor 
was in conference late in the afternoon with Gleason 
L. Archer, Dean of the Suffolk Law School, and held 
out hope that the bill might be allowed to become a law. 

The governor, however, refused to state, when he 
left the State House at a little after 7 o'clock, whether 
or not he intended to allow the bill to become a law." 

The article then went on to give a history of the two 
years of legislative controversy over the bill. 

The article was widely read, for at intervals all day 
Easter Sunday I received congratulations by telephone 
from students and friends of the school. It was a day 
of rejoicing indeed — one of the very happiest days of 
my life. The name of Foss was no longer hateful to me. 
I had forgiven him amply and fully for all the heart- 
ache and sorrow he had given me the year before. I 
told myself that it was better to have the contest end 
as it had than to have won in 1912. 

Then, because my gratitude to the governor was so 
great, I arose early Monday morning in order that I 
might call upon the governor in person at the beginning 
of his day at the State House to express my fervent 
thanks. It was early when I reached the State House, 
so I proceeded to the City Press Room to exchange con- 
gratulations with Henry Berlin and to thank him for his 
long continued zeal in behalf of the school. 

But to my utter amazement I found him, not over- 
flowing with enthusiasm as I had expected, but in a state 
of extreme agitation. He grasped my hand and in a 
torrent of oaths and imprecations conveyed the aston- 
ishing intelligence that I had been the victim of a fiend- 
ish hoax — that Foss had secretly vetoed the bill two 
hours before my interview with him on Saturday. 

246 



THE "PLEASANT EASTER" EPISODE 

So stunning was the blow that I could not believe 
him. Not until I had seen the veto message in the 
hands of Clerk Kimball of the House, could I be 
brought to believe that a veto existed. Even then I 
refused to credit that it was there with the governor's 
acquiescence. It must be the work of some of our 
enemies — the governor had changed his mind after 
signing it and it was filed without his knowledge. I 
hurried to the governor's office, but the attendants in- 
formed me that he had not arrived. 

So I paced the corridors in a tumult of emotions, 
trying in vain to fathom the mystery. Somebody in- 
formed me that the governor was in, despite the report 
I had heard. I returned and demanded an audience with 
the governor. While the attendants were making the 
excuse that he; was too busy to see me, I caught sight 
of the governor as he passed an inner door and before 
the astonished clerk knew what had happened I had 
"sailed" past him and was confronting the governor. 

Foss started violently when he saw me, but instantly 
recovering his self possession, rushed up to me and 
passed his arm lovingly through mine and marched me 
down to the window that overlooks the State House 
grounds. We were in the long corridor-like office 
between the outer office and the council chamber. 
Foss stood beside me making believe look out of the 
window. 

"Governor," I began, "I have just heard that a veto 
of our bill has been filed with Clerk Kimball." 

He chuckled gleefully and replied, "Well, the strang- 
est things do happen around this State House." 

"Can't you call it back, governor?" 

He laughed some more and said, "No, I can't call it 
back." 



247 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

"But," persisted I, "if it got in there by mistake it is 
not in law a veto. You can call it back." 

"It didn't get in there by mistake. I sent it in." 

"You sent it in there!" I cried, just beginning to see 
the truth. "You sent it there two hours before' — two 
hours before our interview. Why didn't you tell me 
Saturday night?" 

"If you wanted to see me I had no objections," he 
chortled. 

"For God's sake, governor," I burst out, "how could 
you do such a thing!" 

"I wanted you to have a pleasant Easter Sunday," 
he cried, and laughed himself purple in the face. 

What I said after that I have no clear recollection. 
The desire to plant my fist on his ugly mouth was an 
•almost overmastering passion. Perhaps he saw some- 
thing of it in my face, for he turned upon me with a 
face of such malignant hate as I never beheld in any 
other human countenance, and cried out in tones of 
menace, "Now don't make a fool of yourself. You 
deserve to get licked. You've got it in the neck. Now 
don't squeal." 

It is a matter of pride to me now that I got out of 
the governor's office without having committed a 
breach of the peace. 



248 



"PITILESS PUBLICITY" 



CHAPTER LIII. 

"Pitiless Publicity." 

My intense indignation at the treatment 1 had re- 
ceived was by no means lessened when I reported the 
occurrence to the newspaper men in the City Press 
room. 

"Give out a statement to the press, give him his 
own 'Pitiless Publicity' " — (that had been a campaign 
slogan of his) — urged Mr. Berlin, and the others 
joined in the request. 

They argued that it would be a public service to 
show the people just the sort of man they had placed 
in the governor's chair. They related other stories of 
outrageous duplicity of which the governor had been 
guilty, but which had never come to light. 

They besought me to dictate a statement. The late 
Mr. Copeland even started to write an article to sub- 
mit to me. But I told them that I needed time to re- 
cover my self possession before I could be sure what it 
was wisest to do. 

Leaving the State House, I consulted hurriedly with 
my friends and found them as outraged as I at the 
governor's conduct, but hopelessly divided on the 
question of whether I should issue a statement. 

One of them, for whose political sagacity I had great 
respect, pointed out to me that if I issued the state- 

249 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



ment, although it were perfectly true, it would be j 
promptly denied by the governor and the people would 
take his word rather than mine — that I would be the 
"goat" and the school permanently injured. 

However, I consulted others, for I desired greatly 
to expose the astounding treatment I had received. It 
was General Bartlett's telephone advice that turned 
the scales in favor of exposure of the governor. When 
the General's first explosion of rage at the happening 
had subsided, he said, 

"I never knew telling the truth to hurt anybody. Go 
ahead and we'll all stand by you." 

The die was cast. I locked myself into my office; 
refusing even to answer the telephone which rang in- 
sistently, and addressed myself to the task of writing 
an open letter to the legislature, setting forth the 
treatment I had received. I wrote it out long-hand 
and afterward typewrote it. The eager newspaper men 
had supplied me with a book of "flimsy," (sheets of 
tissue paper with special carbons between), so that 
from one writing on the typewriter I produced a dozen 
or fifteen copies. 

The majority of these copies I turned over to Henry 
Berlin for distribution to the State House reporters. 
Fortunately for me, it was vacation at the school so I 
went home and to bed with a raging headache. 

The next morning I was almost appalled at the sen- 
sation I had created. Every newspaper that I could 
put my hands on had my story in conspicuous form. 
It was the big feature of the day. The story in the 
Globe had four headings. 



250 



"PITILESS PUBLICITY" 

SAYS FOSS [)EGEIVED--III]CI{EII WRITES 

LEeiSLATORS. GONFEIIRED WITH 

HIM-VETO ALREAOY \l m- 

ERNOR WANTED TO "GIVE 

Hlim A PLEA W EASTER" 

Other newspapers throughout the state took up the 
story and it at once became a state-wide sensation, 
destined to have far reaching results, as will be seen 
hereafter. In this connection, therefore, I will offer 
the letter exactly as it was published in the news- 
papers, March 25, 1913. 

"To the Members of the Legislature: — 

I invite your attention to the conduct of Governor 
Foss with reference to the Suffolk Law School veto. 
The students of the school had petitioned the governor 
for a hearing on the bill, but no hearing was granted. 
Saturday last at half past two in the afternoon, I talked 
with the governor over the telephone and expressed 
my earnest desire to be heard on the bill before he 
took action. He invited me most cordially to meet 
him at the State House at four o'clock. I told him 
that as I was out of town it might not be possible to 
reach his office at four, so he set the time at half past 
four. I met the governor at his office at the time 
stated and there was a Boston man present at our in- 
terview, which lasted for nearly an hour and a half. 

251 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

The governor discussed the case at length, and seemed 
to be sincerely endeavoring to reach a conclusion. 

'T did not know at the time that he had already ve- 
toed the bill — that he had sent his message to the 
clerk's office before inviting me to meet him — that he 
was practicing a cruel deception upon me. While he 
made no promises, he certainly gave me the impression 
that he would act favorably. After I reached home in 
the evening I was called up on the telephone by news- 
paper reporters who informed me that the governor 
had gone home and that the bill had not been vetoed. 
Sunday morning a reporter informed me that he had 
just talked with the governor over the telephone, and 
that he had declared that he had let the bill pass and 
that it was already a law. 

"So after receiving congratulations innumerable on 
the success of the measure, and a day of happy assur- 
ance that our two years of bitter contest were ended, I 
was dumfounded to learn this morning that it was all 
a cruel hoax, perpetrated by the man who has three 
times been honored by the people of this common- 
wealth by the highest office in their gift. 

"When I called at Governor Foss' office this morning 
he gloated over the trick he had played and declared 
that he merely wanted to give me "a pleasant Easter 
Sunday." Ye Gods ! A pleasant Easter Sunday. But 
what of Monday? 

"Why did Governor Foss invite me to see him when 
he had already vetoed the bill, and put me to the 
trouble of making the trip to Boston? Why did he 
give me a hearing from half past four to six o'clock when 
one little word would have ended it all? Why did he 
tell the newspaper reporters that the bill was a law? 

252 



"PITILESS PUBLICITY" 

Because, forsooth, he desired that I should have a 
pleasant Easter Sunday! 

"Do you, as a member of the legislature, approve 
such conduct? I know you do not, but will you not 
manifest your disapproval by voting to pass this bill 
over the governor's veto? But aside from the personal 
matter — this bill has been enacted by two successive 
legislatures. We all believe in majority rule. Why 
should the will of one man be allowed again to set 
aside the carefully considered verdict of the 280 repre- 
sentatives of the people of Massachusetts? 
Very truly yours, 

Gleason L. Archer, 
Dean of Suffolk Law School. 

When I visited the State House on March 25th, I 
found myself the object of considerable attention. The 
governor's ears might well have burned at the uncom- 
plimentary remarks concerning him, voiced to me by 
members of the legislature who came to me to express 
their sympathy — and to promise vengeance when the 
veto fight should come on. 

Nor were these expressions confined to members of 
the legislature. Everyone at the State House who 
had suffered from the gubernatorial jests, now saw an 
opportunity to revenge themselves by helping to 
swell the tide of resentment that was so rapidly rising. 

One young man in particular, Walter L. McMenni- 
men, State House legislative agent of the Locomotive 
Engineers, came to me and introduced himself. 

"I never have taken a hand in anybody's fight but 
our own," he announced, "but if I can help you to put 
your bill over Foss' veto, I am going to do it." 

253 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



41 



He then related a similar experience that his organi- 
zation had had with the governor on the "full crew" 
bill of the previous year. No more energetic worker 
did we have during the next two days than Mr. Mc- 
Mennimen ; and it was a time when the fighting blood 
of every friend of the Suffolk Law School was at fever 
heat. We were all on the battle line at the State 
House. 



254 



A JOLT FOR THE JOKER 



CHAPTER LIV. 

A Jolt for the Joker. 

To tell the truth, I did not entertain very much op- 
timism at the outlook for victory over the Governor 
in the House ; for a two-thirds vote would be neces- 
sary, and we must rely largely for whatever vote we 
might receive upon the members of the Governor's 
political party — the Democrats. For this reason on 
Wednesday afternoon, March 2, 1913, I took a seat 
in the front of the crowded gallery, rather than on 
the side lines of the House floor, where I was accus- 
tomed to sit when a battle was in progress. 

A sharp debate was expected, and a perfect mob of 
spectators were on hand. Nor were they disap- 
pointed. Representatives Griffin, Murphy, Green- 
wood and E. E. McGrath scored the Governor in 
the severest language. The only person to rise in 
opposition to the passage of the bill over the veto was 
Haines of Medford, who openly confessed that he 
deeply resented the governor's conduct and wished 
that he might vote accordingly. 

One of the best descriptions of the debate that I 
saw at the time was contained in the New Bedford 
Standard, as follows : — 

"Governor Foss came about as near repudiation by 
the members of his own party as is possible for a chief 
executive. The fight on passing over the governor's 

255 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

veto the bill allowing the Suffolk School of Law to 
confer degrees became purely a personal issue, and 
many members who had previously voted against the 
bill on principle voted to override the veto simply be- 
cause they felt that the governor had been guilty of 
practices unbecoming a gentleman, and particularly 
the chief executive of the Commonwealth. 

"It was stated in debate on the floor of the House 
that the governor had deliberately misstated facts, 
and while such language ordinarily results in a re- 
sounding whack of the speaker's gavel, on this occa- 
sion it passed unnoticed by the presiding officer and 
there was not a single member of the governor's po- 
litical family to protest." 

The roll call began. I endeavored for a time to 
keep tally — a somewhat difficult feat even for one who 
is not laboring under excitement as I was at the time. 
We were polling a heavy vote but not, I feared, suffi- 
cient for success, and I gave up the attempt to keep 
tally. 

I was in the midst of as excited a crowd of "fans" 
as ever gathered at a ball park, and I was comforted to 
learn, as I did speedily, that they were violent parti- 
sans of my side, although I had never met any of them. 

Groans were offered on every occasion when a group 
of "yes" votes were recorded, and chortles of laughter 
when a long string of "Nos" came up from the floor 
below. When they began to exult "we're licking him 
— we're licking him" I began to take interest, and in- 
quired of the group beside me how the vote stood. We 
had two thirds and one vote to spare at the moment, 
but the tide turned instantly and soon we lacked half 
a dozen of the necessary two-thirds. This was but 
momentary, however, for representatives who had 

256 



A JOLT FOR THE JOKER 

been in' other parts of the building came flocking in to 
be recorded, and nearly every vote was hostile to the 
governor. Whereupon the "fans" went mad. 

Some of them had leaned over the railing and peered 
down into the portion of the House where I usually sat, 
and one said to me, "Why isn't he here today — he 
ought to be here." 

"Who?" I asked. 

"Dean Archer!" 

But just then the vote was announced. We had won 
by a vote of 155 to 67. Forgetting its dignity, the 
House cheered. The gallery was wild with enthusi- 
asm. Certain newspaper men from the press gallery 
began a frantic gesticulation for me to meet them out- 
side in the corridor. 

This revealed my identity to the gallery in which I 
sat. When I arose and went hurriedly out, the crowd 
was cheering me to the echo. 

We had inflicted heavy chastisement upon the gov- 
ernor, and the gloom of Easter Monday was quite for- 
gotten. 



257 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LV. 

I ' ' ' The Governor at Bay. 

It is but natural for people in general to espouse a ' 
cause after a victory has been won. Our victory in the 
House certainly brought out hosts of friends. A clip- 
ping bureau, that had been engaged during our legis- 
lative fight, now began to bombard me with bulky en- 
velopes of clippings from newspapers all over the state. 

News items and editorials came pouring in, and the 
great majority of them took my side of the contro- 
versy. It would be an unwarranted use of space in 
this volume to attempt even a summary of these items 
and editorials, for I have a large scrap book full of 
them. 

The remarkable change of tone of the leading news- 
papers toward the governor now roused his political 
enemies to a sense of the opportunity to rid the party 
of his unwelcome leadership. 

Even on March 26, the morning before the veto 
contest, the Boston Herald had declared at the close 
of a long and bitter editorial arraignment of the gov- 
ernor : 

"It is not the first time that men of repute and prom- 
inence have been the victims of the governor's curious 
taste in joking. * * * We respectfully suggest to Gov- 
ernor Foss that before he makes further arrangements 

258 



THE GOVERNOR AT BAY 

to obtain a fourth cup of tea, he mend his ways in the 
matter of joking. The hilarity following his official 
ventures into fun making is altogether one-sided." 

But the most significant political prophecy of that 
period was voiced by the Fall River Globe of March 
29, 1913, a prophecy that months later was strikingly 
fulfilled. 

"Governor Foss has undoubtedly seriously injured 
his chances of securing a re-nomination at the hands 
of his party." 

After discussing the facts of the "Pleasant Easter" 
episode, the editorial concludes : 

"The conviction is growing every day that if Foss 
runs for governor again next fall, he will be forced to 
do so without any organized party behind him," 

Ex-Mayor John F. Fitzgerald of Boston was the 
first Democratic leader to openly break away from the 
governor. In his "Republic" he commented thus upon 
his former chief: 

"Governor Foss certainly got himself in bad in his 
treatment of Dean Archer of the Suffolk School of 
Law on the question of his signature to the bill which 
passed the legislature giving the school the right to 
confer degrees. Unfortunately for the governor this 
is not the first time he has done like things, though 
they have not gotten the publicity that this last inci- 
dent has received. People that know Governor Foss 
the longest and the best cannot explain his peculiar 
point of view on many matters. He will turn down 
his best friends and those closest to him, and, slapping 
his hands upon his knees, assure them that they are all 
right, and that the thing that he is doing is the best 
thing for them. He does not hesitate to say things to 

259 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

people and 24 hours afterward to say the opposite 
thing. Dean Archer makes the statement : 

" 'When I called at Governor Foss' office this morn 
ing he gloated over the trick he had played and de- 
clared that he wanted to give me a 'pleasant Easter 
Sunday.' Ye Gods ! a pleasant Easter Sunday — but 
what of Monday?' 

"This is not a statement that a man who thought 
himself fitted for the Presidency should feel proud of." 

But the most caustic editorial of all was that of the 
Boston Sunday Herald, March 30, 1913: 

WHY THIS COMMOTION? 

"It is extraordinary the attention now given by press 
and public to the commonplace and undramatic ex- 
perience of Dean Archer of the Suffolk Law School* 
with Governor Foss. Even the phrase, 'I wanted you| 
to feel happy over Easter,' which his excellency subse- 
quently used in explaining to the Dean why he had so 
elaborately misled him as to the situation, has passed 
into current slang. The man on the street introduces 
a project, jocular or otherwise, for getting the better 
of his associate with the words, 'I wanted you to feel 
happy over Easter.' This sentence has become the 
countersign of the 'Flim Flammer.' * * * Associates 
of Governor Foss have given way to no extreme emo- 
tions of surprise over the episode. They merely said 
'Why not?' and then, when they had occasion to tell 
how Smith 'did' Jones in a horse trade, they have 
made the point clear by saying that the former wanted 
Jones to be 'happy over Easter.' Thus our language 
grows ! Thus its phrases ripen into new meaning. * * 
It is now nearly half a century since Massachusetts 

260 



THE GOVERNOR AT BAY 

has given a governor more than three terms. That 
governor was the sainted John A. Andrew." 

It is small wonder that Governor Foss took great 
alarm at the storm I had raised about his head — a 
storm that started the landslide which so effectually 
buried him a few months later. When my story had 
been given out to the press, he was only mildly 
amused. In the words of the Globe on the morning 
my statement first appeared : 

"When the governor heard of Dean Archer's com- 
munication to the members of the House on the sub- 
ject he only smiled." 

The smiling stage was now past, however, and the 
governor was bending every power of his office to de- 
feat the bill in the Senate and thus to vindicate him- 
self. All his political lieutenants were at work. 

When the veto came up in the Senate it was re- 
peatedly postponed, a ruse to gain time. One by one 
our friends were whipped into line with the governor. 
One of the very senators who had spoken most elo- 
quently for our bill was now openly proclaimed in the 
newspapers as leading the fight against the bill. An- 
other who had been very loyal in support of the bill 
for two years was chosen by the governor to read a 
grossly untruthful eleventh-hour statement to influ- 
ence the vote in the senate. 

So even before the day of decision in the senate, I 
was painfully aware that the veto would be sustained. 



261 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LVI. 

Exit Governor Foss. 

On April i, 1913 the veto contest took place in the 
senate. The governor's forces had evidently an- 
swered "ready." The prearranged plan of action was 
now to be carried out. But the governor was quite 
evidently taking no chances on the result; for his 
"political secretary," George Harlow, came into the 
Senate chamber at the beginning of the session and 
stood near the messengers' desk, as though to witness 
the delivery of the vote. 

This action so incensed Senator James H, Brennan 
of Charlestown that, in the course of the debate, he 
paid his respects to the governor in a burst of fiery 
denunciation, for "sending his representative into the 
senate chamber." 

Senator Allen opened the debate for the school ; and 
his efforts were ably supported by Senators Brennan, 
McCarthy, Bagley and Garst. Those who spoke 
against the measure were Senators Stearns, Fisher and 
Quigley. It was Senator Quigley to whom the gov- 
ernor had intrusted the mission of reading a personal 
letter, which declared that my statement was "a des- 
perate fabrication contrived and circulated for the ob- 
vious purpose of affecting legislation." 

The vote was taken, and six of the Democratic Sen- 
ators were now against us. One Democrat senator who 

262 " 



EXIT GOVERNOR FOSS 

voted with us, Thomas M. Joyce, came from a sick 
bed to register his rebuke of the governor. The vote 
was 14 to 21 and the Governor's veto was sustained. 

But the governor's letter had now added a new 
chapter to the ''Pleasant Easter" controversy. On the 
following morning the newspapers were full of it. 
The Globe devoted nearly half the first page to the 
matter, with my picture in a very conspicuous display. 

GOVERNOR FOSS GIVES LIE TO DEAN G. 
L. ARCHER. 

STATE SENATE KILLS SUFFOLK LAW 
SCHOOL BILL BY SUSTAINING VETO BY 
VOTE OF 14 TO 21. 

QUIGLEY OF HOLYOKE MADE OFFICIAL 
SPOKESMAN TO THE BODY. 

PUBLISHED VERSION OF INTERVIEW IS 
FLATLY DENIED BY LETTER. 

HEAD OF INSTITUTION INVOLVED RE- 
TORTS THAT ACTION OF EXECUTIVE WAS 
COWARDLY AND IN BAD FAITH. 

Then followed a long article summarizing the entire 
controversy, and giving the governor's statement and 
mine. 

But the report of the matter in the Boston Traveler 
of that date had all other papers outdistanced for spec- 
tacular handling. Almost the entire front page was 
devoted to the affair. In a large horizontal panel 
across the top of the page they had placed my picture 
on one side, with the governor's on the other; and be- 
tween us were two articles, "What Gov. Foss said of 
Dean Archer," and below it, "What Dean Archer says 
of Governor Foss." 

263 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

In order that the reader may fully comprehend the 
exact situation, the Foss letter and my reply are here- 
with printed in full. 

GOV. FOSS' LETTER: 

"Dear Senator : — A public official cannot deny every 
erroneous report concerning his public or private acts, 
and it is my general rule to pay no attention to such 
matters. When, however, a personal statement that 
is at every essential point a pure fabrication is sent to 
members of the Legislature for the obvious purpose 
of influencing the vote on an important public ques- 
tion, it becomes necessary to take cognizance of a 
matter otherwise unworthy of attention. 

"On Saturday, March 22, Dean Archer of the Suf- 
folk Law School asked for an interview in order that 
he might make a statement concerning his case. I 
therefore arranged to see him, and in the interview 
went over the entire matter. I did not tell him in ad- 
vance of the reading of the veto message to the Legis- 
lature that I had vetoed the bill, but the entire con- 
versation, like others I had the same day with other 
advocates of the bill, proceeded upon the assumption 
that it was my intention to veto the measure. Almost 
the last words of Mr. Archer as he left the office were : 
'The Legislature has passed the bill twice. Won't 
you recall the veto and let it go by?' My recollection 
on this point is confirmed by a gentleman who was 
present during the interview. 

"Mr. Archer's statement concerning the interview of 
Saturday is therefore incorrect at every point. In his 
futher statement that I told the newspapers that the 
bill had become a law he is also wrong. The news- 

264 



EXIT GOVERNOR FOSS 

paper representatives were told before my office closed 
for the day that no statement concerning my action 
would be made until Monday. The same announce- 
ment was made from my home Saturday evening in 
reply to repeated telephone calls. Mr. Archer's further 
statement about our interview on Monday morning 
is as incorrect as the others. Since he received on 
Saturday no intimation of an intention to allow his 
bill to become a law there could have been no point in 
the poor jest he attributes to me. 

"This statement I issue not for personal reasons, 
but in order to counteract the effect of a desperate 
fabrication contrived and circulated for the obvious 
purpose of affecting legislation. The concurrent 
opinion of the State Board of Education, the Massa- 
chusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Associa- 
tion is against the proposed measure ; and the frantic 
attempt to win sympathy by a false statement con- 
cerning an interview in this office should convince 
every one that it is unwise to confer further powers 
upon the institution in question. 

"Yours very truly, 

"EUGENE N. FOSS." 

MY STATEMENT: 

"Gov. Foss in his letter to Senator Quigley, which 
the latter read in the Senate yesterday before the vote 
on the Suffolk Law School veto was taken, asserts 
that my letter to the members of the Legislature, 
March 24, was 'at every essential point a pure fabri- 
cation.' Every word contained in my letter was ab- 
solutely true, and, in spite of his outrageous asser- 
tion, the Governor himself admits the truth of prac- 

265 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

tically every one of them in his letter to Senator Qiiig- 
ley. He admits that he 'arranged' to see me; that he 
did see me, and that we went over the entire matter, 
although, as he alleges, the veto had already been filed 
two hours before. 

"These are the material points of my statement that 
the Governor characterizes as 'a pure fabrication.' He 
says that he did not tell the reporter Sunday morning 
that he had taken no action on the bill, yet I can pro- 
duce the man and he will take oath to the correctness 
of his statement. He says that my statement of our 
interview on Monday morning, when he gloated over 
me, is incorrect. I stated then, and I am willing to 
take oath to the fact now, that he explained his decep- 
tion by saying that he wanted me to have 'a. pleasant 
Easter Sunday.' When I reproached him he became 
abusive and said among other things: 'You've got it 
in the neck. Now don't squeal.' 

"It is significant that the Governor waited for eight 
days before replying to my statement and then had 
his letter read to influence the vote of the Senate just 
before the vote was taken, and when I could not 
possibly respond. 

"He asserts that I used the expression, 'Won't you 
recall your veto?' I did use the expression, but only 
after I had exhausted every other means of getting a 
direct reply. I hoped thus to surprise him into saying 
that there was no veto in existence. His response to 
my query was to take my hand in both of his at part- 
ing and with 'tears in his voice' to assure me that I de- 
served to win ; that his office was open to me at all 
times — come when I would. I pressed him again for 
a definite answer and he assured me fervently that I 
need not worry at the outcome. 

266 



EXIT GOVERNOR FOSS 

"I was guileless enough to believe that no human 
being could be guilty of such hypocrisy, especially 
after he had assured me during the interview that he 
was convinced that the state board of education had 
used the school shamefully in reporting adversely 
without having investigated the school. 

"Were it not for the fact that the Governor's charge 
that I had falsified in my statement to the Legislature 
was so made that it is in law an absolutely privileged 
communication I would sue him for libel ; but as it is, 
I must submit to the outrageous insult from his ex- 
cellency. 

"But now that Gov. Foss has started to explain 
things at all I wish he would tell the public how he 
justifies himself for twice vetoing our school charter 
when he is himself a trustee of the Y. M. C. A. law 
school, the rival school that has been our chief op- 
ponent in both contests. 

"I wish he would explain also how he justifies him- 
self for being trustee of a school whose degree-grant- 
ing power he refers to in his veto message as a 'wrong' 
that should not be repeated. 

"I wish he would explain how he justifies himself 
for coercing senatorial support, as he did so shame- 
lessly in the recent contest on his veto, forcing friends 
of the measure to vote against it, contrary to their in- 
clinations. Is there not a provision in the constitution 
that none of the three branches of the government 
shall usurp the functions of the others?" 

For some days there were echoes of the personal 
issue thus raised ; but of the editorials that came to 
my attention each took my side of the controversy. 
The one most pleasing to me, however, was that in 

267 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

the Boston Traveler-Herald, April 4th, entitled, "Foss 
versus Archer," a portion of which w^as as follows : 

"The fact remains that, in a public statement, the 
Governor of the Commonwealth was charged with de- 
ceit and unveracity by a gentleman with whom, less 
than forty-eight hours before, he had had an intimate 
discussion by appointment. Instead of replying as 
soon as the charge was made, the governor waited for 
more than a week, and then wrote a personal letter to 
the young senator from Holyoke, who had undertaken 
to defeat for the governor a measure to which he was 
very much opposed. 

"The letter to the average man did not represent an 
indignant repudiation of a serious charge against the 
Governor's veracity so much as it did a desperate at- 
tempt to undo in the Senate what had been done in 
the House. * * * The governor should take to heart 
his experience with one man who could not appreciate 
the intellectual processes of the chief executive of this 
commonwealth, and was not afraid to say so." 

The Chelsea Gazette, in the course of an editorial on 
the Governor's conduct, expressed its convictions in this 
wise: "There is no man so dangerous in public life as 
the trimmer; you can watch a thief, but a liar is beyond 
control." 

As I have before indicated, this controversy had far 
reaching effects. It was the subject even of anti-Foss 
poets. The Boston Chamber of Commerce in its 
spring "gambols" dramatized the affair, with actors 
impersonating the governor and myself. It was said 
to have been the "hit" of the evening. 

But as a political weapon, my story was turned upon 
Foss in the following autumn with telling effect. The 
words of the Fall River Globe had come true. Foss 

268 



EXIT GOVERNOR FOSS 

was running for re-election as an independent, without 
a party behind him. All three of the great parties, 
Democrat, Republican and Progressive, each fearing 
the governor as much as their regular opponents, were 
belaboring him with might and main. My "Pleasant 
Easter" letter was being read at political rallies all 
over the State. 

When the votes were counted in the state election, 
Governor Foss had received but twenty thousand as 
against about two hundred thousand the year before. 
I will close this chapter with a statement that ap- 
peared in the Boston Globe of November 6, 1913 : 

"It is to be feared that Dean Archer of the Suffolk 
Law School hasn't a forgiving disposition. He quotes 
to Governor Foss now what he says the governor said 
to him last spring, 'You've got it in the neck. Now 
don't squeal.' " 



269 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LVII. 

The Great Victory. 

The State Election of 1913 resulted most pleasingly 
for the school. Not only did David I. Walsh win the 
governorship but the whole Democratic state ticket 
was also elected, including Thomas J. Boynton, presi- 
dent of our school corporation, as attorney-general of 
Massachusetts. The way was now apparently open 
for the Suffolk Law School charter. 

The school itself had increased to a total attendance 
of one hundred and forty students. In December 1913, 
we tendered a grand reception to our new attorney- 
general. In January 1914, the third year of our legis- 
lative contest opened, with the usual preliminary skir- 
mishes with the State Board of Education. 

The hearing before the Committee on Education 
was held February 17th, 1914, and what transpired 
there was well summarized in the Boston Globe of 
that date, from which the following is quoted : 

SUFFOLK LAW SCHOOL FIGHT IS ON AGAIN. 

Atty. Gen. Boynton Heard In Behalf of Bill. 
Petition for Right to Give Degrees Opposed by the 
State Board. 
270 



THE GREAT VICTORY 

"The fight in behalf of the Suffolk Law School, which 
seeks the right to grant the degree of bachelor laws to 
its graduates, was resumed again at a hearing this 
morning before the committee on education. This is 
the institution made famous through Ex-Gov. Foss' 
controversy with Dean Gleason L. Archer. * * * This 
morning's hearing was made especially notable by the 
fact that Atty. Gen. Thomas J. Boynton appeared in 
behalf of the bill as president of the Board of Trustees ; 
also by the fact that a senator and a representative, 
who last year were against the measure, came before 
the committee to say they wished to be recorded in 
favor. Dr. David Snedden of the State Board of Edu- 
cation, spoke in opposition, presenting his chief argu- 
ments in the form of a report made by the commission 
concerning the school at the request of the legislature. 
* * * Representative Haines, who in previous years has 
opposed the institution as a member of the legislature, 
came before the committee to say that this year he 
favors the passage of the bill because the school has 
stood the test and has proved its stability. 

Senator Henry J. Draper, who last year voted to 
sustain the governor's veto, announced that he is with 
the institution firmly this year." 

The weakness of the opposition arguments is evi- 
dent from the following : 

"Chairman Snedden of the State Board of Education 
said the board does not pretend to pass upon the 
question of granting degrees, but he believed the com- 
mittee should consider the matter very seriously, as 
a degree means that the State indorses a man. It isn't 
a question of the poverty or the wealth of the appli- 
cant, but a certificate that the holder of a degree 

271 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



1 



possesses certain qualifications. The State Board of 
Education, he asserted, takes no responsibility for the 
State granting the power to give degrees to the Y. M. 
C. A. Evening Law School and does not defend it. A. 
L. Goodwin, secretary of a committee of the Boston 
Bar Association, said that the association, as the re- 
sult of its investigation, is not prepared to change its 
attitude in the matter of granting the Suffolk Law 
School the power asked. 
Hearing closed." 

Of the legislative contest there is really little more 
to tell. From this time forth the course of the school 
charter was like a triumphal march. It received a 
unanimous report from the Committee on Education. 
It passed the House as a matter of parliamentary rou- 
tine. In the Senate it bowled over the opposition to 
the tune of 26 to 9. It went to the governor. 

I took no chances this time. When the bill arrived 
from the senate, I had so arranged it that Attorney- 
General Boynton, Secretary of State Frank J. Dono- 
hue, and State Treasurer Frederick W. Mansfield, 
three staunch friends of the school, were in the execu- 
tive office to urge immediate signing. 

Although every power of the opposition had been 
exerted on Governor Walsh to move him to a veto, he 
signed the bill in the presence of his three distin- 
guished colleagues and presented the pen to Represent- 
ative George J. Wall, a student in the school, who im- 
mediately presented it to me. 

I did not personally witness the last act in the 
drama. I was anxiously waiting in the outer office — 
"Agony Corner," as it has so aptly been dubbed by the 
newspaper men. My first knowledge of the great 

272 



THE GREAT VICTORY 

event was when Mr. Wall, suddenly emerging, execut- 
ed a war dance in my presence, flourishing the fateful 
goose-quill pen with which the charter had been signed. 

I have since learned that when the governor started 
to affix his signature, someone suggested that I be 
called in to witness the act, but Mr. Boyton said, 

"No, not for a thousand dollars a second would I 
stop him now that he is signing the bill," and to this 
sentiment I have a hundred times added, "Amen." 

The great battle was over. The dream of my life 
had been realized, and even the splendid newspaper 
articles of congratulations that were forthcoming 
could not add to my happiness in this hour of triumph. 

For three years the strangling arms of the Educa- 
tional Octopus had striven mightily to crush us, but 
had utterly failed. The eager efforts of boards, com- 
mittees, associations and a venomous governor, will- 
ing tools of the great octopus (and also allied with the 
lesser octopi that sought to profit by the downfall of 
our school), were now swept aside at a single stroke 
of a pen, a pen which now hangs in my office, framed 
with the charter which it signed. 



273 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LVlll. 

The School Goes House Hunting. 

With the close of our legislative fight came leisure 
for other things. Nor was it long before another 
task, fully as engrossing, commanded all my time and 
energies — the procuring of a new home for the school. 

It will doubtless be remembered that the decision 
to remove the school from 53 Tremont Street to Tre- 
mont Temple in 1909 had come about very abruptly. 
The chief cause had been the sudden boosting of rent. 

The decision to remove from Tremont Temple came 
about even more suddenly and after more than five 
years of confident belief that the school would coa- 
tinue in that location for all time. 

It had frequently been suggested to me by different 
individuals, for several years back, that the school 
would soon need a home of its own, bvit I had unhesi- 
tatingly put the suggestion aside. Even after the 
signing of the charter by Governor Walsh I had con- 
ferred with Supt- Plympton of Tremont Temple with 
reference to the securing of additional space in the 
building. 

But there were influences at work that were to 
precipitate a change of plans. For several months 
prior to the signing of the charter, we had been 
greatly annoyed on lecture evenings by a boys' club 
that had been given headquarters on the floor where 
the school and lecture rooms were situated. 

The noise of scampering through the corridors ; of 

274 



THE SCHOOL GOES HOUSE HUNTING 

talking and laughing, and even of practice on a drum 
in the office of the club had interrupted our lectures 
again and again. Very often I had spoken to the 
offenders personally. I had complained to the super- 
intendent's office, but the effect in each case was only 
temporary. 

The continual recurrence of these annoyances, and 
the complaints of students and teachers wore my 
nerves at last to the breaking point. On Friday eve- 
ning, March 27th, 1914, the boys' club fairly outdid 
itself and, in spite of all the "policing" I could secure 
from the building authorities, the senior lectures were 
obliged to suspend because of the noise. 

I saw at once that the school would be ruined. Men 
would not continue to attend lectures while bedlam 
was reigning in the corridors. 

The trouble weighed heavily upon my mind when 
I returned home that night. But it was too important 
a matter to be decided hastily, so I resolved to take 
time to think it out from all possible angles, lest now 
at the time when the school should rightly become 
large and prosperous, a rash decision might cripple its 
future. 

My tendency to sleeplessness when any great prob- 
lem is on my mi ad now took a hand in the matter. I 
lay awake nearly all night thinking of how I might 
save the school from this impending peril. But from 
whatever angle T viewed the matter, I came to but 
one conclusion — the school must leave Tremont 
Temple. 

But having come to this vital decision, I saw at 
once that I must speedily investigate all available 
locations, in order to make an announcement to the 
students on the following Monday evening. 

275 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Saturday morning dawned, cold and threatening 
with clouds — and Saturday was my day at home. But 
when I told my wife that I was going to Boston to 
look for new quarters for the school and explained 
the reasons, she acquiesced in my judgment, albeit 
somewhat dubiously. 

When I reached the car line, there was no sign of 
an approaching trolley — street cars have a way of 
being late on a disagreeable morning! I have often 
noted that rain or disagreeable weather is a very effec- 
tual damper upon the most ardent of resolutions. With 
more time to reflect upon the matter, it now occurred 
to me that I was acting rashly in thus rushing off to 
Boston. But pride or irresolution kept me from turn- 
ing back. 

To while away the remaining moments of waiting 
for the car, I drew from my pocket, a little book — a 
volume of Shakespeare's plays. It was a pocket 
edition of "Ji^^lhis Caesar." I opened it at random, 
and my eye fell upon a passage that electrified me be- 
cause of its uncanny application to the state of mind 
I was then in. 

Had someone, knowing my circumstances, said to 
me what that book said, I could not have been one- 
half so impressed. It seemed to me then the very 
voice of Providence, and it fixed my resolution abso- 
lutely. 

"There is a tide in the affairs of men. 

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 

Omitted, all the voyage of their life, 

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.. 

On such a full sea are we now afloat ; 

And we must take the current when it serves 

Or lose our ventures." 

— Julius Caesar, Act. IV, Scene III. 

276 



THE SCHOOL GOES HOUSE HUNTING 

Just then the trolley car hove in sight around a turn 
in the street. I swung onto the rear platform in full 
confidence that I was taking the tide at its flood, not 
only figuratively, but literally, for it began to rain in 
the muddy street. 

When I reached Boston the rain had increased. 
Taking a subway car to Boylston Street, I set out 
under the protection of an umbrella to make the cir- 
cuit of the Common along Tremont and Beacon 
Streets, looking for "to let" signs. On Beacon Street 
there were one or two prospects of which I made 
note. I also made an excursion into Mt. Vernon 
Street, noting that 47 Mt. Vernon Street was on the 
market. 

But when on the way to State Street, to look up the 
agents of some of the property, it occurred to me that 
the Industrial Accident Board had recently vacated 
their former quarters in the Pemberton Building, so 
I called upon the agents to investigate the proposition. 

As the result of our conversation, the suggestion 
was made to me that the school could secure the en- 
tire building at No. 30 Pemberton Square. The rent 
named was considerable, but I at once saw that by 
subletting the space the school did not need, we could 
reduce the annual expenses to a safe figure. 

I hastened to the office of Wilmot R. Evans, Jr. 
of the Board of Trustees, for he was more of an au- 
thority on real estate than any other member o¥ the 
board. Mr. Evans is conservative. He was doubt- 
ful of the ability of the school to handle the proposi- 
tion. 

But I had become convinced that no better propo- 
sition could be found. Pemberton Square was a good 
location, and I believed that the ten year lease that 

277 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

was offered would insure the school from interruption 
for a long time to come. 

On Monday evening, I called a mass meeting of 
the students and stated that I had found a way for 
the school to deliver itself from the annoyances that 
then existed in Tremont Temple. I suggested that an 
endowment campaign might now be feasible, for the 
school needed financial assistance in the contemplated 
venture. 

My enthusiasm was at once contagious. A cam- 
paign committee was immediately organized. So 
swiftly did we work that on the following evening, at 
a second mass meeting, the students themselves 
signed pledge cards to an amount exceeding $500 
(about $400 of this sum was later paid in). 

This action convinced Mr. Evans of the feasibility 
of the plan. The other trustees being favorably dis- 
posed, I took up the matter of lease with the agents 
of the building. The necessary alterations would in- 
volve an estimated expense of ten thousand dollars, 
so it became necessary for me to meet the trustees of 
the building and convince them that the outlay was a 
reasonably safe proposition. In this I succeeded. They, 
in their turn were to secure the consent of the owners 
of the building to the placing of a mortgage on the 
property to raise funds for the alterations. 

The endowment campaign entailed an immense 
amount of work for me. I was very busy for the next 
week or so, all the time hopefully believing that the 
Pemberton Square proposition was as good as closed, 
but anxious nevertheless to hear the final verdict of 
the owners. 

A surprise and disappointment was in store for me. 
The agents sent for me and announced that one of 

278 



THE SCHOOL GOES HOUSE HUNTING 

the owners had refused to consent to the mortgage. 
They now proposed that we take the building and 
make the alterations ourselves. But not even my en- 
thusiasm for the place could tempt me to undertake 
so impossible a venture. 

I had done my best to secure the building, and that 
in a measure consoled me. It has always been one of 
the tenets of my philosophy of life that if I had done 
my very utmost to accomplish a given thing, and then 
failed in the attempt, it was because a Wiser Intelli- 
gence than mine was turning me aside to a more de» 
sirable object. But I always make it a point to ex- 
haust every possibility of accomplishing the object 
before I can be sure that there is a better one in store 
for me. 

Never was my faith more amply justified than in 
this instance. To have taken a ten year lease of such 
restricted quarters would have been, as after events 
demonstrated, a calamity of first magnitude. We 
should have outgrown the place within a year. 



279 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LIX. 

Buying a School Home. 

Eliminating the Pemberton Square proposition from 
mind, I set about in search of a different location. It 
soon became apparent that it would be impossible to 
rent a desirable building. I was reluctantly brought 
to the conclusion that we must purchase a building. 

One thing that influenced me in this was the fact 
that some of the students believed that, if we could 
find a desirable building, some of Boston's wealthy 
citizens might endow scholarships or give the school 
a substantial sum for the privilege of naming a mem- 
orial hall. Propositions of this nature were in fact 
reported to me, but nothing came of them except the 
temporary encouragement afforded by the proposi- 
tions themselves. 

I investigated building after building and finally 
decided to examine the^ premises at 47 Mt. Vernon 
Street Now numbers 45 and 47 were buildings of 
quite similar construction, but No. 45 had, during the 
previous year, been renovated at an outlay of between 
seven and eight thousand dollars. The real estate 
agents, with commendable sagacity, instructed their 
young man to show me No. 45 before taking me 
through No. 47 in order, as they expressed it, that I 
might see how the other building would look if it 
were fixed up. 

280 



BUYING A SCHOOL HOME 

The young man explained to me that No. 45 was 
then an apartment house and that we might have some 
difficulty in seeing the building, for the tenant Avas 
very much afraid that the building might be sold. 
He was a true prophet. 

No icy-faced butler could have received us with 
more frigidity than did the dark, slow-moving maid, 
who answered our ring. She would take the real 
estate man's card — yes, and she would find out from 
"Her Majesty" if we could see the building. We 
were permitted to step into the marble paved foyer 
and wait while she was gone. This was my first 
glimpse of the splendid building which is the present 
home of the school. It was only a glimpse, for the 
maid returned with the information that we could not 
see the building. 

The young man from the real estate office was visi- 
bly put out, but he asked permission to see the first 
floor which consisted of reception hall, dining room 
and kitchen. We received a stony refusal and retired 
in good order from the building. 

We went through No. 47. and I was impressed by 
the spacious rooms, so dififerent from those in the 
other buildings I had seen. Although it was dis- 
tressingly dirty and out of repair, the possibilities of 
the place were apparent. The price, moreover, was 
reasonable, so I took up with our trustees, the ques- 
tion of the advisability of purchase. 

By appointment the next day, a member of the real 
estate firm met me and the chairman of the under- 
graduate endowment campaign committee, Richard 
R. Flynn, now State Commissioner of Pensions, and 
together we invaded the forbidden premises at No. 
45 Mt. Vernon Street. This time the maid could not 
bar us. and we went through the building. 

281 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

I was delighted at the interior of the building- and 
its complete adaptability to the needs of a school. At 
every new revelation of its spaciousness, Mr. Flynn 
would nudge me and whisper, "Oh my, oh my, Dean, 
if we could only have this building! It would be the. 
making of the school." Each time I smilingly agreed ' 
with him. But I knew that this building would cost 
us seven thousand dollars more than the other one, 
and in addition to that me must pay two thousand } 
dollars in order to cancel the lease of the present 
occupants, so I put the matter out of my mind. 

The upshot of it was that I took a thirty-day option 
on the building at 47 Mt. Vernon Street, paying four 
hundred dollars which would be forfeited if we did 
not make good. But the man from whom I had taken 
the option did not himself have title, holding merely 
an agreement from trustees under which he would 
acquire title before our option expired. In other 
words, he was a speculator. 

It might be thought that when things had gone to 
this pass if either building was to be acquired by the 
school it would be No. 47 and not No. 45. But again 
fate was taking a hand in the afifair. 

The speculator had placed No. 47 in the hands of 
several brokers, but being under an agreement with 
the trustees not to sell to anyone of the race of Solo- 
mon, he had laid that injunction on the brokers. One 
broker had violated the restriction, accepted money, 
and given a receipt in the speculator's behalf. His ac- 
tion had been promptly disavowed. Directly after 
this I had come to the speculator and readily secured 
an option which of course, he was anxious to fulfill. 

But the people who had paid money to the broker, 
although receiving it back, brought injunction pro- 

282 



BUYING A SCHOOL HOME 

ceedings against the speculator to restrain him from 
selling to Suffolk Law School or to anyone else. I 
looked into the matter enough to satisfy myself that 
they could not hope to win their injunction proceed- 
ings, so I went ahead with my plans to purchase. 

Troubles now thickened, however, for the student 
campaign for endowment fizzled out and my own ef- 
forts had won but a single gift of $ioo for the school. 
The trustees, nearly all of them poor men, could not 
assist me personally and certainly they did not exert 
themselves much to secure donations, so the entire burden 
was thrown upon me. 

It was indeed a very hard predicament. I realized 
that the school must have a home of its own, and I 
spent many a sleepless night and prayed many a fer- 
vent prayer that the way might be opened to me where- 
by that home could be won. 

While the greater part of the necessary sum could 
be raised by a mortgage on the building itself, yet to 
purchase the equity in the building was the great prob- 
lem. The school had nothing save the money already 
paid for the option. To purchase the equity was 
therefore impossible, unless I were to raise the money 
on my own personal credit. 

Aside from royalty contracts my assets consisted 
wholly of a country home which I had just succeeded 
in paying for. To mortgage it again after a five-year 
struggle with a mortgage was a bitter thought indeed, 
nor was I at all sure that my wife would consent to 
the sacrifice. 

But finally when no other way was open, I told her 
what was in my mind. We discussed it from all 
angles, for the contemplated step involved not only 
financial disaster for the school but the loss of our 

283 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 






very home if it failed. But my wife rose to the oc- 
casion as she had done in other crises of the school 
and bravely resolved to make the sacrifice of signing 
away her dower rights in the property. 

I thereupon set about to find how large a loan could 
be secured and finally closed the matter with a man 
with whom I had had business dealings before. By this 
time the date for the transfer of the property at 47 
Mt. Vernon Street was at hand and the injunction 
proceedings still held fire. I had already gotten esti- 
mates of how long it would require to put the building 
into condition for school use and was painfully aware 
that unless something was done immediately we 
would not have time to put the building into shape 
before school opened in September. 

June I, 1914, came, the date for the passing of 
papers, and still no decision upon the injunction. 
Then when I remembered that an adverse decision 
could be appealed and the property tied up all sum- 
mer I at once gave up the idea of buying No. 47, de- 
manded and received my option money back, and 
turned my attention to No. 45. 

The owner was in Europe and the cable was re- 
sorted to. When we finally came to terms as to mort- 
gages, etc., I found that I lacked $4500, even consider- 
ing what I had raised on my house. The seeming 
•hopelessness of the task plunged me for a time into 
blank despair. I remember of sitting for hours in my 
office in Tremont Temple and thinking bitterly of my 
useless sacrifice in mortgaging my house and of the 
utter defeat that had overtaken all my plans. We 
must stay in Tremont Temple until by some chance 
the way might open, but to lose the beautiful building 
at 45 Mt. Vernon Street was bitterness in the extreme. 

284 



BUYING A SCHOOL HOME 

I finally left the office and took the 3.05 train for 
Woburn. On the way home, a new thought came to 
me. I had life insurance that could be pledged if I 
could but find a person who would take it as security. 
The only person that seemed at all likely was my 
father-in-law, Rev. Henry S. Snyder, a retired con- 
gregational minister, who lived near me in Woburn. 
I doubted if he could loan me so much, or whether 
he would consider the venture as too uncertain; for 
he is a shrewd business man, else he never would 
have been able to accumulate a competence on the 
meagre salary that clergymen are paid. 

Without stopping at my home, I walked a brisk 
mile and a quarter to his home finding him at work 
in his garden. My time was limited so I stated then 
and there the object of my visit. He promised to let 
me know his decision that evening. 

In great uncertainty of mind, I retraced the mile and 
a quarter of country road to my home and had scarcely 
reached there when my telephone rang and Mr. 
Snyder told me that he would loan me $3500. With 
the goal so near, I knew that I could raise the rest. 
My relief and joy were unbounded. 

Six weeks must elapse before papers could be 
passed, so I signed the agreement to purchase and 
paid the two thousand dollars to cancel the lease of 
the tenant. Even then it took some diplomacy to 
secure the premises on time. By the terms of the 
lease, the tenant could have held over until October i, 
1914. She was very much displeased at losing the 
place and I feared she would, out of spite, hold it to 
the last minute. 

But I assured her that our lease at Tremont Temple 
did not expire until 1915 (which was quite true) and 

285 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

that we could use Ihe rent money which she would 
pay us until October to pay the school rent. I casu- 
ally mentioned, however, that if it would be an obliga- 
tion to her to escape paying rent during the dull 
season, we would cancel the lease August ist, pro- 
vided the premises were vacted by that time, other- 
wise we would not move from Tremont Temple until 
after school opened, holding her liable for rent in the 
meantime. 

My satisfaction was unbounded when I learned that 
the tenant had taken the bait and did not propose to 
pay Suffolk Law School any rent and would vacate 
August ist. 

But in the meantime, an event occurred that, how- 
ever much it increased the labours of a busy summer, 
enabled me to overcome the last financial obstacle in 
the way of purchasing the building. 

I was appointed by the Attorney General Boynton 
and Commissioner Bump of the State Board of Con- 
ciliation and Arbitration chairman of a special com- 
mission to arbitrate the Springfield Street Railway 
muddle. It was a long, weary task, but my decision 
was unanimously accepted by both railway com- 
pany and its employees, and the compensation which 
I received for my services supplied the last necessary 
dollar for the purchase of the building and its altera- 
tion into a school building. 

The great battle was won. But when the owners 
came to make the conveyance they would deal only 
with me ; so the honor was forced upon me of being 
for a whole day the owner of 45 Mt. Vernon Street. 
As soon as I could draw a deed and get my wife's sig- 
nature to it, I conveyed the property to the school, 
all the papers being recorded about August i, 1914. 

286 



BUYING A SCHOOL HOME 

But the whole issue had turned upon Mr. Snyder's 
loan to me in the great crisis, and he should there- 
fore be written down in this history as one of the 
substantial benefactors of the School. 



287 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LX. 

The School Year of 1914-1915 

We took possession at 45 Mt. Vernon Street on 
August I, 1914, and began immediate alterations for 
the accommodation of students. The chief alterations 
were in the basement. A large fireproof smoking 
room was constructed as well as lavatories and such 
equipment necessary for a school. 

It was a new experience for me, after being so many- 
years in cramped quarters, to have a large building 
entirely devoted to the school. We hung out a school 
flag; installed an illuminating sign, and in many ways 
gave evidence that Suffolk Law School had at last 
intrenched itself on the very top of Beacon Hill, close 
by the State House where so much of its history had 
been enacted. 

Prospective students now began to call in increasing 
numbers. I soon foresaw trouble from the very tide 
of popularity that was now enveloping us. 

For one thing I could no longer combine in my own 
person all the myriad functions of Dean, Secretary, 
Treasurer, Professor of Law, and Keeper of Records. 
It was in fact the keeping of school records that bur- 
dened me most, so I cast about for a suitable man to 
whom I might entrust the duties of recorder. My 
choice fell upon Wm. G. Dolan, Esq., a recent grad- 
uate of the school, whose integrity and loyalty I had 



THE SCHOOL YEAR OF 1914-1915 

long appreciated. Much to my satisfaction he ac- 
cepted the appointment. 

The matter of the school cashier for the receipt of 
tuition gave me less trouble — not that the question 
was less in importance, but that my choice was instan- 
taneous. My wife's father, Rev. Henry S. Snyder» 
whose loan to the school had made possible the pur- 
chase of our building, had previously assisted me on. 
tuition nights, and was now the logical man for the 
place. 

I therefore offered him the position of Assistant 
Treasurer and Superintendent of the school building. 
Both positions he accepted. For more than four 
years he filled them with a fidelity and ability that is 
beyond appreciation of words. Mr. Snyder came to 
live in the building, for its upper stories were well 
adapted to purposes of habitation but not to school 
needs. 

I was soon obliged to do likewise. So great be- 
came the demands upon my time that in early Sep- 
tember of 1914 I closed my country home and brought 
my wife and children to live in Boston, for I was: 
unable, except at great hardship, to get home at all,, 
my presence being necessary at the office from 9 A. M. 
to 9.30 P. M., six days a week. 

The school opened for the year on the evening of 
September 14, 1914 with about one hundred new stu- 
dents enrolled. But this number increased by leaps 
and bounds until we reached the surprising total of 
two hundred and thirteen men who attended a part 
or all of the school year. This meant that our entire 
attendance exceeded three hundred students — nearly 
three times the attendance of the year before. 

The most pleasing feature of all was that more than 

289 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

a hundred men, who entered the school after opening 
night, were brought in by other students. So far from 
there being a lessening of loyalty and school spirit 
after the necessity of unity of action had passed, the 
students were even more loyal and enthusiastic than 
-ever. 

We were now receiving as students various state 
officials, senators, representatives, aldermen from near- 
by cities, one of the City Council of Boston, as well 
as prominent men in the various walks of life. Two dis- 
tinguished Naval Officers, one a retired Rear Admiral, 
were enrolled during the school year of I9i4-'i5. 

Our annual school banquet, in April, 191 5, was a 
very brilliant afifair, with Governor David I. Walsh 
and Mayor James M. Curley of the City of Boston in 
attendance. 



290 



BUILDING THE ANNEX 



CHAPTER LXl. 

Building The Annex. 

The year of 1914-1915 had many surprises in store 
for mC; and none greater than the wonderful and un- 
expected increase of students. From a school of 
slightly over one hundred men we sudenly found our- 
selves under the necessity of housing over three hun- 
dred students. The largest hall in the building proved 
adequate only for the freshman class. 

It came to me as a distinct shock that however 
easily we could manage affairs for the current year, 
another such entering class could not be housed in 
the building. Clearly, we must arrange for additional 
space. But how was it to be accomplished? Many 
indeed were the plans concocted, but all embraced one 
central idea — the utilizing of such additional land as 
the school possessed in the rear of the main building. 
But the awkward part of the whole matter lay in the 
fact that an ell of irregular shape occupied more than 
half the space. Any building plans must be formu- 
lated with that fact in view. 

But a greater problem than any number of ells was 
that of raising the funds necessary for building oper- 
ations. The experience of the endowment campaign 
of May, 1914 had demonstrated the futility of attempt- 
ing to raise money in that fashion. I therefore went 
to the agents of the building to learn if it were pos- 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

sible to raise the money by securing irom the mort- 
gagees an increase in the mortgage indebtedness. 

My errand was fruitless and for several months I 
put the whole matter aside, praying and hoping that 
before spring came the way might be opened. But 
with the beginning of the second half year the ques- 
tion began to assume such proportions in my mind 
that I could not sleep nights. Night after night I 
would awaken at one and two o'clock to wrestle with 
the problem. 

An incident occurred one day that turned my 
thoughts into a new channel. We had recently hung 
in the foyer a beautifully engrossed memorial, con- 
taining the names of all who contributed to our en- 
dowment fund of the previous spring. One of the 
students, after reading it, came into my office and 
said: "Dean, aren't you going to give us a chance to 
contribute to an endowment fund? That memorial 
out there in the hall looks pretty good to me. I wish 
my name were up there too." 

I was well aware of the splendid loyalty of our 
students, but this remark turned my thoughts toward 
them as the possible means of providing for the fur- 
ture of the school. 

The following day, I called to my office Mr. Harris 
C. Porter of the Class of 1917, who had made the alter- 
ations in the original building and asked him to make 
an estimate of the cost of enlarging the building over 
our back yard, and running up two stories. He in 
turn called in an architect friend, Edward P. Lynch, 
and I outlined to them my plans, which at the time 
involved preserving the ell above the second story. 

The figures for this work involved an expense more 
than ten times as great as the total amount secured 



BUILDING THE ANNEX 

by the late endowment campaign. I knew that my 
own financial credit could not suffice. All my assets 
were still pledged toward the building itself. In this 
dilemma I resolved to seek the opinions of the more 
substantial men among our students as to the pos- 
sibility of raising the money, or at least a part of it by 
personal loans. Luckily the very first man I called 
upon was Commissioner Joseph A. Parks of the Indus- 
trial Accident Board, who had rendered such signal 
service to the school in the first year of our legislative 
fight. 

Mr. Parks was then a sophomore in the school. We 
had a long and earnest talk in Mr. Park's private 
office. The upshot of our conversation was that a 
bond issue might be the most convenient mode of 
accomplishing the work. 

The more I thought upon it the more it appealed to 
me so I prepared subscription blanks, setting forth 
the terms of the bond issue and on Monday evening, 
March 8, 1915, I laid the matter before the freshman 
class to whom I was teaching Torts on that evening. 

My proposal was to raise six thousand dollars in 
seven per cent debenture bonds of a par value of $20 
each, redeemable in one, two and three years. I had 
prepared on a blackboard a diagram of three hundred 
squares, each representing a twenty-dollar bond, 
which I proposed to cross off as each bond was sub- 
scribed. 

The class were taken by surprise and I offered to let 
the matter stand until the next night, but after several 
speeches from the floor by students — one in particular 
by George F. Hogan of Lynn which elicted great ap- 
plause, the subscription blanks were distributed. 

I was amazed at the result. All the hardships and 

293 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



-i 



sacrifices that I have undergone for the school were I 
felt atoned for in the tremendous demonstration of 
loyalty on that evening by the first division of the 
Freshman class. They subscribed for over two thou- 
sand dollars worth of bonds and nearly every man 
afterward made good upon his subscription. 

The response from the balance of the school was 
about equal in amount, bringing the total student sub- 
scription to four thousand dollars. Feeling confident 
that I could myself complete the amount (I afterward 
contributed about $1900) I laid the matter before our 
trustees. It was officiall}'^ voted that I be authorized 
to build the annex. 

The architect was now instructed to draw up definite 
plans as a basis for official bids. But the problem of 
the ell was still unsolved. The architect finally sug- 
gested that if the ell were torn down completely it 
would simplfy matter greatly. This was finally agreed 
upon and the annex as it now stands was laid out under 
my direction by Architect Lynch. 

Several weeks passed and it was the latter part of 
A.pril before the complete plans were filed for approval 
with the building department at City Hall. Students 
had already begun to pay for their bonds, when an 
event occurred that seemingly blasted every prospect 
of a new annex and even threatened to deprive us of 
our school building itself. 

I have met many a surprise and disappointment in 
the history of the school, but none more complete nor 
more unexpected than this — our plans were rejected by 
the building department and the architect was ordered 
to provide for a six-foot passage way open to the sky 
on each side of our building extending from the back 
alley to Mt. Vernon Street. Imagine it if you can ! 

294 



BUILDING THE ANNEX 

With such an alley on each side of our building we 
would, after allowance for walls, have a structure fif- 
teen feet wide, and ninety feet long, not to mention 
seventy feet high. 

Needless to say, I cursed the day the building de- 
partment was born. The department had just closed 
up several halls in Boston and I pictured to myself a 
pompous official closing up Suffolk Law School any 
day, for it had now been officially called to their at- 
tention that our building had no passageways from the 
alley to Mt. Vernon street. Mr. Porter's language was 
more expressive than mine, for he is a capital and 
effective swearer on occasions. I could not help feel- 
ing, however, that he did the subject no more than 
justice. 

But he and the architect had done all they could do, 
so I resolved to take a hand personally in the matter, 
comforted by the thought that I could not make mat- 
ters any worse than they were, and that I should at 
least derive some satisfaction from a real good "scrap." 

My first move was to demand the legal authority by 
which such an outrageous ruling was made. They 
cited a certain section in the building laws that pro- 
vided that any building in which halls were maintained 
must subscribe to the building requirements as to 
theatres. I secured a copy of the building laws and 
sure enough under "Theatres"! found the provision as 
to passageways. My school duties were sadly neglect- 
ed that day. I sat in my office wrestling with the 
dilemma, every little while reading the offending sec- 
tion as to passageways and the other clause to which 
I was first referred. 

It was not until afternoon that I discovered any 
ground for hope, but I finally decided that the Ian- 

295 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

guage of the clause, while it did refer to theatres, did 
not say anything about passageways. It did speak of 
aisles, exits, etc., and this I reasoned was all that the 
law intended. 

So I made another trip to city hall and had a long 
conference with one of the building department offi- 
cials. I explained my interpretation of the law. He 
declared that they had always ruled that way and 
■"gotten away" with it; but I assured him that it meant 
so much to us that we should take the matter to the 
Supreme Court if necessary. 

I have a strong suspicion that he was more than half 
convinced that I was right. But at any rate, he called 
for the plans, so that he could see just what I wanted. 

I explained them, but my heart came into my throat 
when he placed his finger on the plan of our present 
Junior hall on the second floor of the main building and 
said : 

"What are you using this for?" 

"Why," I replied, fearful least my answer should 
cause our building to be closed up, "why, we use it 
just for a class room — just as we want to use these 
others — for class rooms." 

The magic word "class rooms" chased away every 
cloud in the sky, for the man suddenly beamed upon 
me with a forty-horse power smile and said, "Class 
rooms — well, that changes the whole situation. Your 
architect has got it 'halls' on the plan. If you want 
classrooms, why go ahead with your plans — they're all 
right." 

I stood there for a moment too amazed and relieved 
to speak. 

"We can build over all our land," I gasped? 

"Yes." 



BUILDING THE ANNEX 

"And no trouble about passageways?" 

"No, no passageways necessary." 

"And is there a limit to the size of the halls — class 
rooms I mean?" 

"No, no limit to the size of classrooms. You can 
make 'em as big as Boston Common if you want to." 

I made record time from city hall to 45 Mt. Vernon 
Street, it may be well believed. . Nor did I waste any 
time in telephoning the architect to change the word 
"hall" to class rooms and to rush the plans back to 
City Hall. He did so. The plans were then promptly 
accepted and the work begun. 

It so happened that on Commencement day May 26, 
1915, the actual work on the annex was begun. The 
foundation was laid after overcoming many unexpected 
difficulties. The workmen encountered deep beneath 
the paving of the back yard an old cistern, ancient 
vaults and even two old wells that recalled the early 
days of Boston when the great metropolis was a mere 
village. 

The ell was gradually demolished and every brick 
of its walls was relaid in the walls of our new annex. 
In spite of an unusually rainy season, with torrents of 
water soaking down through the dismantled ell and 
even driving into the main building, Mr. Porter kept 
his forces at work with splendid determination to com- 
plete the annex before school opened. 

Had it not been for the loyalty and executive ability 
of Harris C. Porter of the class of 1917 the annex 
would not have been a complete reality in September, 
1915. Not only that, but through his watchfulness the 
school was enabled to construct the building at a fig- 
ure nearly two thousand dollars below the lowest bid. 
The annex was formally dedicated September 29, 191 5, 
with Gov. Walsh, who had signed the school charter, 
as guest of honor. 

297 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LXII. 

A Year of Momentous Problems. 

The completion of the annex was barely accom- 
plished when the school year of 1915-1916 officially 
began. September 13th witnessed the gathering of 
Suffolk Law School's growing family — and an enthu- 
siastic gathering it was. The spacious halls of the 
annex called forth endless praise from those in the 
upper classes, as well as enthusiastic comment from 
the Freshmen. So newly plastered were the walls that 
no time had been left for paint or decoration, and dur- 
ing all that year their white expanse surrounded us at 
our work and reminded one and all of the magnitude of 
our summer's achievement. 

The rising tide of students set a new mark for the 
school, with four hundred and sixty as its total. My 
fondest hopes had never pictured the school so great 
in numbers. In the long years of adversity and strug- 
gle we had builded better than we then realized. 

But a very grave danger was also before us. Our 
success with a small school had been based upon per- 
sonal attention to the needs of each student, and the 
school had now vastly outgrown our old machinery. 
It was no longer possible for the teachers even to 
know the names of all their students. It was no longer 
possible for the teachers to correct the written work of 
so considerable a body of men. In other words, the 

298 



A YEAR OF MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 

very popularity of Suffolk Law School was now invit- 
ing its ruin, unless I could devise some news means 6i 
carrying on our work with its old time efficiency. 

During the busy summer of 1915, however, I was 
building more than an annex. I was working out plans 
for a new department of the school which should take 
over that portion of the teaching functions that the 
regular teachers were unable to fill. 

Even during the previous year I had instituted a 
"Recording Department" to care for the great mass of 
written work that came in each week. Its success had 
given me the germ of the idea destined to meet the 
present crisis. 

I now inaugurated a "Department of Problems and 
Quizzes" and pursuaded my brother, Hiram J. Archer, 
Esq., previously a valuable assistant in the school, to 
come from Maine and assume the duties of "Director" 
of the department. 

In order to secure uniformity of work I laid out a 
regular programme for each semester, giving the ex- 
act date in each class when problems and quizzes were 
due . Every faculty member was then required to pre- 
pare at the beginning of each semester a complete set 
of problems and quizzes as called for by the pro- 
gramme. 

All such were to be officially approved by the Direc- 
tor; to be printed or stenciled, and sufficient copies 
turned over to the Recorder, by him to be distributed 
to the classes on the dates when they were due. 

ThuS; uniformity in all classes was secured. But to 
the Problem department fell the great task of the cor- 
rection of the avalanche of written work, more than 
tAvelve hundred papers a week. Under my brother's 
direction an efficient corps of examiners was formed, and 

299 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

thus each student received personal attention and per- 
sonal advice when needed through the medium of his 
written work. 

Filing cabinets were provided for each class to which 
all corrected papers were returned after the rank of 
such papers had been recorded in the official records. 

The co-ordination of the two departments — the Re- 
cording Department under the direction of Wm. G. 
Dolan, and the Department of Problems and Quizzes 
under my brother, was like that of a well oiled ma- 
chine — very quiet and very efficient. 

The great problem had been met, and met triumph- 
antly. I was thrilled with the joyful consciousness 
that we were not only maintaining our old time effi- 
ciency but setting a new and higher standard. 

There was little time for self congratulation, how- 
ever. The demands for new departments and new 
helpers now arose in a new quarter — the treasury de- 
partment. In addition to my other duties I was treas- 
urer of the corporation and charged with the duty of 
keeping accurate accounts. 

But to keep straight^ and free from error the tuition 
accounts of nearly five hundred men, was becoming 
almost an impossibility. A bookkeeper seemed essen- 
tial. Mr. Snyder, whose duty it was to receive tuition 
and give receipts therefor, had also become over- 
whelmed with work. He needed, it seemed, not one 
but several assistants. 

Then it was that I devised a new plan for the treas- 
ury department that dispelled all our woes and enabled 
us both to handle our work with utmost ease. Under 
the new plan Mr. Snyder no longer wrote receipts. 
The students themselves did all the writing — filling in 
a double voucher with the name, date, and amount and 

300 



A YEAR OF MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 

bringing the same with tuition to the Treasurer's win- 
dow. Mr. Snyder was called upon merely to make 
change if need be and to stamp one of the vouchers 
"paid" as the students receipt, retaining the other for 
our official records. 

In my office I dispensed with a ledger, using instead 
a manila card for each student. These cards were ar- 
ranged alphabetically in an appropriate vertical file 
and the tuition vouchers, as payments came in, were 
pasted upon them in spaces for the purpose. Thus, 
mistakes were rendered well nigh impossible and the 
condition of each student's account was to be seen at a 
glance. While I still retained the cash book in which 
all tuition was entered at the close of the school each 
night it was merely as a possible recourse in case a 
student's tuition voucher should be lost and as a sum- 
mary of tuition receipts. 

This new plan, together with a monthly accounting 
system that I worked out during the same year, com- 
pletely freed the Treasury department from the bug- 
bears of drudgery and of expensive assistants. 

This was indeed a year of progress in which we 
inaugurated many new policies called forth by the 
growing needs of the school. 

In October, 1915 appeared the first issue of the 
"Suffolk Law School Register," a monthly magazine of 
thirty-two pages ; written, edited and published by the 
students — perhaps the first undergraduate evening law 
school magazine in America. It was of course neces- 
sary for me to exercise a paternal oversight over the 
affairs of the magazine ; to write special articles for it 
and to co-operate generally. But Vv'hile such co-opera- 
tion .added to my labors, especially when I was later 
obliged to take over the financial affairs of the periodi- 
cal, it was a valuable adjunct to the school. 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

In its pages appeared the first chapters of the "Edu- 
cational Octopus," the first edition of this history, 
which I was then writing. Special articles on legal 
topics appeared in the "Register." Each class had its 
own page of news and classroom chatter. A special 
page was reserved for "the Dean," and I used it for 
a series of intimate "talks" with the students upon 
matters connected with the school and of vital interest 
to all. Nearly half the magazine was devoted to re- 
view questions in various courses ; problems and 
quizzes, bar examiantion questions and the like. 

I also inaugurated a series of special Wednesday eve- 
ning lectures open to all the school. "International 
Law" by Dr. Geo. F. Tucker ran for ten weeks during 
the first Semester of I9i5-'i6, while "Conveyancing" by 
Albert L. Partridge, Esq., ran for a similar period in 
the second semester. These lectures, particularly the 
latter series, were very popular, although it is difficult 
for evening students to attend an extra evening every 
week. 

This year saw also the resurrection of the school 
debating society. I arranged, for the benefit of the 
club, a practical course in "Public Speaking and De- 
bate." But the difficulty confronting busy law stu- 
dents when extra evenings are called for, even though 
it be but twice a month, caused the club to languish as 
its predecessors had done. It quietly expired during 
the following year. Its friends lamented its departure 
as a formal organization, but its spirit lives on to this 
day in the smoking room and corridors or wherever our 
students congregate before and after lecture. 

I have, in fact, come to the conclusion that these 
informal and more or less heated arguments on vital 
topics teach self-expression perhaps more effectively 



A YEAR OF MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 

than could formal debate. Certainly a participant in 
such informal arguments must reason logically and ex- 
press himself clearly else he will meet derision and 
frankness that is good for the oratorical soul. 

For some yearr. we had maintained a summer pre- 
paratory department which had been very ill attended. 
The reason for this lay in thq fact that I had been un- 
willing to require students to attend this department, 
and had given them the option of attending our school 
or preparing in any other way they chose. 

Experience had now demonstrated that men with 
defective preliminary training who did not attend our 
summer school did not train at all. We were now 
conferring degrees and I found myself under the em- 
barrassing necessity of refusing in behalf of the faculty 
the applications for graduation of many such applicants. 
Much wrath was manifested by disappointed candi- 
dates. The Senior class were in almost open rebellion 
because classmates of four years' standing could not 
graduate, totally ignoring the slothful neglect of such 
candidates to complete their general educational re- 
quirement. 

The second semester of 1915-1916 was one of the 
most difficult ones in my experience, all because of our 
standards of general education. The faculty were 
divided. One enterprising candidate even canvassed 
each of the trustees and secured an oral promise from 
nearly all of them that they would vote to give him the 
degree if "Dean Archer was willing." That left me in 
an embarrassing position and I was obliged to get 
the trustees together and give them the facts as to the 
scholastic record of the candidate in question. Suffice 
it to say that the board voted unanimously to sustain 
my ruling, and moreover to be more guarded in their 
promises thereafter. 

303 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

Another candidate enlisted very formidable political 
support. A congressman and local leaders mixed in 
the fray. The school was even threatened with the loss 
of its charter — a most ridiculous threat, for who ever 
heard of a school being deprived of its charter for main- 
taining standards? But the legislator who made the 
threat was doubtless too angry to think of that. Even 
members of the trustees endeavored to secure leniency 
for some of the unfortunate ones. But I realized that 
these were test cases and if the school permitted these 
men to graduate it could not in justice deny similar 
treatment to all other men of defective education in 
the school. 

The result was that the faculty and trustees sus- 
tained my rulings and the first great contest ever edu- 
cational standards was won. 

But now I resolved upon a plan to meet the situation 
thus painfully revealed. This plan involved the re- 
organization of our summer preparatory department 
and the appointment of regular high school teachers to 
conduct the work. It involved also the plan of com- 
pulsory attendance of defectively trained students who 
were candidates for a degree. 

AVhen proper announcement had been made, I took 
a census of the school and required each student to 
answer in writing whether he was a high school grad- 
uate. All those with less than a high school training 
were required to state whether they were candidates 
for the degree ; if so, whether they would attend the 
preparatory department during the summer of 1916. 
The questionaire contained the following significant 
clause : 

"Note: — Candidates for a degree who are not 
high school graduates are expected to attend the Suf- 

304 



A YEAR OF MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 

folk Law Summer Preparatory Department at their 
earliest possible convenience. Failure to do so will 
be deemed an election to remain a special student." 

This action brought about results beyond expecta- 
tion. Since that date, the summer school has been a 
strong adjunct of the law school, with an average at- 
tendance of from seventy-five to one hundred men a 
summer. 

The school year came to a close with the most in- 
spiring commencement in point of numbers and enthu- 
siasm that the school had ever known. Ford Hall, 
where the exercises were held, was packed with 
friends, relatives and students. It should also be added 
that the class of 1916 made the highest bar examina- 
tion record of any class that has ever graduated from 
Suflfolk Law School, seventeen out of eighteen who 
took the Massachusetts bar examinations passed be- 
fore the end of the year of 1916. 



305 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LXIII. 

The Banner Year of 1916-1917. 

Although for two years the world war had been 
writing itself into histor}- and had called from our 
shores many adventurous and idealistic young men, it 
had thus far had but slight effect upon Sufifolk Law 
School. It remained for our inconsequential Mexican 
border disturbance to call the Nation to arms in the 
summer of 1916. Villa's raid and our unsuccessful pur- 
suit are well known to all. But to the Suffolk Law 
School it had special significance. Our students of 
military status were called away, some of them from 
the summer preparatory school, and all absentees re- 
maining away for a month or more after the opening 
of school in September. 

Notwithstanding these absentees, the school opened 
for its banner year in point of numbers September i8th, 
1916. Five hundred and ten students was the total 
attendance. A more enthusiastic student body would 
be hard to find. This was also the tenth anniversary 
of the founding of the school, so on the appropriate eve- 
ning we made brief and informal recognition of the 
fact. An oil portrait of the founder of the school 
painted by an artist whose son was a student in one 
of the classes was hung in the freshman hall, and like- 
nesses of the trustees and faculty were installed in the 
foyer. 

306 



THE BANNER YEAR OF 1916-1917 

In December occurred the sad death of Gen. Charles 
W. Bartlett, a member of our board of trustees and a 
staunch friend of the school. That left a vacancy in 
our official board which was filled January 10, 1917 
by the election of Hon. James M. Swift, a former At- 
torney-General of Massachussets. 

Comparatively few domestic problems arose during 
this year. There was one, however, that merited con- 
cern and that had to do with bar examination reviews. 
Our official bar examination review had hitherto been 
given after the close of school. 

For several years I had known that many of our 
students were entering the classes of certain outside 
"bar exam specialists" far in advance of our regular 
review. It had now come to the point that as early as 
February these outside classes were beginning and our 
Seniors were being enrolled in increasing numbers by 
emmisaries of the "specialists" who were charging as 
high as fifty dollars for the review. 

There were two reasons why I objected to this ar- 
rangement. First ; it interfered with our regular Senior 
work of the second Semester owing to neglect of regu- 
lar studies. Second ; that in order to stimulate attend- 
ance at such reviews, the reviewers were endeavoring 
to convince our Seniors that they could not pass the 
bar examinations without the special services of such 
reviewer. In other words, it was a system of propa- 
ganda calculated to breed distrust of the efficiency of 
Suffolk Law School. 

At any rate, it had the effect of turning each Senior" 
class into two groups, one loyal to the school, and the 
other loyal to the "specialists," and more or less dis- 
loyal to their Alma Mater. It impressed me as an un- 
just and intolerable situation that Suffolk Law School 

307 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

should labor so unstintedly for four years to train 
men for their life work only to have private individ- 
uals, for purposes of their own, by in wait for theip 
at the end of that period and turn them against their 
Alma Mater. 

I realized also the grim fact that made that result 
possible. Men forget a great deal in four years. Prin- 
ciples once familiar have been forgotten. I have even 
known one senior to declare that he had never heard 
of the statue of Frauds, which he had studied for 
weeks in his freshman year as well as in the subjects 
of Equity, Real Property Sales, etc., of later years. 
This being true, a crafty reviewer could readily con- 
vince such students of the inadequacy of their course. 

So in January, 1917 I announced a new policy. 
Thereafter, our official bar examination review would 
begin in January of each year, given by our regular 
faculty, and continue on other than school evenings, 
throughout the second Semester and June. The re- 
view would be required work for all candidates for a 
degree, and examination upon freshman and sopho- 
more subjects would be exacted. Unless the work 
were compulsory it would be of little value and the 
attendance would be light. Under the new plan, a 
maximum attendance was assured and maximum effi- 
ciency guaranteed. 

The plan was not to take effect for a year, but the 
Senior class immediately voted to place themselves 
under its provisions. The new bar review schedule 
was, therefore, immediately put into effect. 

Having had at this writing more than two years of 
experience with it I can say with assurance that it is 
a very great success. After four years of study, the 
student is in a position to marshall all the chief sub- 

308 



THE BANNER YEAR OF 1916-1917 

jects of the law with telling and lasting effect. Need- 
less to say, the school was delivered from the menace 
of the outside reviewer, and strengthened in a pecu- 
liarly important respect. 

One other change in our school policies that oc- 
curred during the same year is worthy of mention. 
Because of the mounting cost of supplies, equipment, 
lighting, and other things, the trustees voted in Febru- 
ary, 1917 that all future students be required to pay 
$75 a 5^ear for tuition, in place of the $60 rate that had 
prevailed for eight years. 

In April came the world war. One of the first of 
our students to offer his services to the nation was 
Real Admiral George B. Ransom (retired) of our 
senior class, who at sixty-six, still retained the fire 
and patriotism of youth. Admiral Ransom remained 
to graduate in May but many of oar students left be- 
fore the end of the year ; some of them for the officers 
training camps while others departed for France with 
the first of "Pershing's crusaders." 

Our 1917 commencement was a brilliant affair. The 
presence of khaki-clad men in the line of black gowned 
graduates lent a patriotic tone to the occasion that 
rendered it memorable in the history of our school. 
Twenty-two out of the forty who graduated that 
night have since served in the great war, and one of 
them. Lieutenant Charles M. Toole was killed in action 
in the great battle of the Argonne forest in October, 
1918. 



309 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 



CHAPTER LXIV. 

Suffolk Law School and the War. 

The summer of 1917 was one of great anxiety for 
the future of the school. Every week brought to my 
desk reports that this student and that had left for 
the training camps. The operation of the selective 
draft was rapidly thinning out the various classes. 
New students were seldom registered and even then 
under the shadow of the draft. 

But toward opening time the tide turned. Men who 
were uncertain as to their war status enrolled. Upper 
classmen returned, so that our grand total for the 3^ear 
of 1917-1918 was four hundred and forty-six men. 
But this number were never in attendance at any one 
time. Men came and went. Some of them went sadly, 
but the majority of them called to leave their adieus 
and departed from my ofhce with the light of the great 
adventure in their eyes. Our numbers dwindled week 
by week until some divisions were almost negligible. 
At the close of a very uneventful year, so far as the 
school was concerned, the attendance had shrunk to 
about three hundred men. 

The summer of 1918 found a much reduced summer 
school attendance, but the war made calls even upon 
this. The change in draft regulations calling for 
registration and classification of all men between the 
ages of eighteen and forty-five struck all professional 
schools a body blow. 

310 



SUFFOLK LAW SCHOOL AND THE WAR 

During the six weeks from July ist to August 12th, 
not a single new student enrolled at Suffolk Law 
School Knowledge came to me that several large 
law schools had closed their doors. The great war 
was rolling up heavy casulty lists, and predictions 
were freely made of several years more of carnage. 

Under date of September 9, 1918, I wrote in my 
diary : "With fifteen freshmen registered as against 
eighty-one on September 9, 1916 and forty-eight Sep- 
tember 9, 1917, the conclusion is inevitable that days 
of hardship and struggle are at hand. Yet is it war — 
the greatest war that the world has known. Mean 
spirited indeed would be the man who did not rejoice 
to bear his part in the common sacrifice." 

One week later the school opened, and but one hun- 
dred and seventy-three students appeared on opening 
evening, many of them even uncertain whether it was 
wise to begin the year's work with the shadow of the 
draft overhanging them. I issued a reassuring state- 
ment that unexpended tuition would be refunded to 
all students who were called during a tuition period. 
This had visible effect upon the irresolute. 

Opening night, September 16, T919, was a memor- 
able one for me in several respects. Just as the upper 
classes assembled at six o'clock (the freshmen class 
was not to convene for organization into divisions 
until 7:30 P. M.) all electric lights in the building ex- 
cept in the library and Junior hall blew out and 
plunged us into chaotic darkness. 

With a step ladder and a supply of new fuses I 
spent ten frantic minutes in trying to locate the 
trouble but in vain. I called the Seniors into 
the Junior hall, for I had previously decided to com- 
bine the two classes and give them all Senior work 
during the current year. In a few words I explained 

311 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

that it had become necessary to return to an old policy 
of the school of alternating the Junior and Senior 
courses ; that the classes would thus receive all sche- 
duled training and graduate on time, although the 
order of third and fourth year subjects would be re- 
versed. I explained also that there was no special 
reason except convenience for the arrangement of the 
subjects of the last two years. 

I had expected dissatisfaction, if at all, from the J 
Junior class, but to my astonishment, a storm of re- 
volt at once broke out in the Senior class. They 
objected mightily to having the Juniors study with 
them! Distracted as I was by the knowledge that 
the Sophomore class was receiving its lecture on 
Equity in darkness, and that new students were gath- 
ering in an unlighted hall, I had scant time for argu- 
ment or diplomacy. I am sure that I responded with 
some spirit; ordered the work to go forward and 
promised to settle the matter Friday night. 

Then I resumed my hunt for the defective fuse this 
time with one of our students who was an electrician. 
But our building, having been wired at different 
periods and by different electricians, has a strange and 
wonderful system, defying all known laws of reason 
or logic, so we were forced to give up the task. Help 
came, however, in the shape of a call man from the 
Edison Company, with his testing apparatus. He 
soon located the trouble. Never did illumination seem 
more luminous than when our lights resumed their 
functions at about seven o'clock on opening evening. 

Thus the school opened for the year. On Tuesday 
night our attendance had increased by ten, and in a 
few days our total had reached the two hundred mark. 
On Friday evening I met the Senior-Junior class. 
The Seniors were in a very belligerent mood but 

312 



SUFFOLK LAW SCHOOL AND THE WAR 

when I had frankly discussed the reasons, the heavy 
deficit in the school exchequer and the grave need for 
retrenchment wherever it could be accomplished with- 
out sacrifice of school standards of education they 
responded with their Suffolk loyalty and voted their 
unanimous support. 

But greater woes were in store for us. The great 
epidemic of Spanish Influenza was already in our 
midst. Even on opening night word came to us that 
one of our Juniors had died with it. Others were 
reported ill, and at the end of our second week all 
greater Boston schools were closed by the health 
authorities. Suffolk Law School remained closed for 
nearly four weeks, during which time scores of the 
students were ill, several died, and we suffered the 
great loss of Professor Webster A. Chandler, who 
succumed on October 7th. He was a dear and loyal 
friend to me, and a very able teacher of law. The 
influence of his sterling character had done much for 
Suffolk Law School and all its students. 

The school reopened October 21st with an attend- 
ance of more than two hundred students. The excite- 
ment of politics and the last great contest of the 
world war were very much in evidence in the school 
corridors. Then came the surrender of Turkey, the 
armistice with Austria and the great day when Ger- 
many bowed her wicked head. 

Suffolk Law School was forced to suspend Monday 
and Tuesday evenings while the mighty celebration of 
peace of November nth and 12th was in progress. 

Since that happy date there have been no interrup- 
tions. The school has moved steadily forward in its 
allotted tasks with an efficiency equal to the best tradi- 
tions of its past. In the December 1918 bar examina- 
tion, practically one-third of all successful candidates 

313 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

from the entire State were from Suffolk Law School, a 
remarkable record when it is remembered that four 
other law schools shared between them the remaining 
two-thirds of the successful list. 

The class of 1919 staged a most brilliant graduation. 
Sixty-seven cap-and-gowned seniors marched from the 
school building to Ford Hall, several lieutenants and 
many other veterans of the great war imparting a mili- 
tary aspect to the procession. The hall was crowded. 
A unique feature of the occasion was the presentation 
by the class to the school of an electric clock to oper- 
ate the corridor gong for the assembling and dismissal 
of classes. 

The summer school of 1919 was the most successful 
in the history of the department. The July bar exam- 
inations were especially pleasing, with more than forty 
Suffolk Law men on the successful list. 

Advance registrations for the new year indicated, 
even a month before school opened, that we should 
experience a return to pre-war conditions. But the 
results were far beyond expectation. Three hundred 
freshmen have enrolled to this date, a number equal 
to the present attendance of the three upper classes 
combined. 

Thus a new problem has suddenly presented itself. 
Our school building is filled. We must straightway 
enlarge or construct a new building of greater capacity 
on a nearby site. To this problem we are turning 
thought and energy, confident of the future and rend- 
ered more zealous by an abiding consciousness of the 
greatness of mission of Suffolk Law School. 



314 



CONCLUSION 



CHAPTER LXV. 

CONCLUSION 

Thirteen years have elapsed since the founding of 
the school. Those years of the institution's history I 
have "sketched, but the influences that have radiated 
from the school through the lives of its graduates and 
students are beyond power of analysis or of record. 
I have seen men transformed mentally and physically. 

I have seen the humble clerk attain through Suf- 
folk Law School's ministrations the sure knowledge 
that has led him to found a business of his own and 
already to become the President of the Merchant's 
Association of his city. I have seen the mechanic win 
admission to the bar and, using his legal knowledge in 
his employer's behalf, become superintendent of the 
very establishment where in his student days he was 
an ill paid workman. I have seen the newsboy trans- 
formed into the lawyer of ability and recognized stand- 
ing. T have seen the street laborer become one of the 
most successful lawyers in his section of the State. I 
have seen the instalment collector of insurance among 
the very poor, after a few transforming years, plead 
cases before the United States Supreme Court in 
Washington. 

And all these things in the brief compass of thirteen 
3'ears ! The history of the institution itself is there- 
fore but the history of the source gf influences that are 

315 



BUILDING A SCHOOL 

already reaching beyond the boundaries of the State 
and even of the Nation. 

In our student body will be found men of every 
race and creed. Books written solely for use in the 
school have been adopted by two of the great univer- 
sities of Japan. They are selling in Holland, Cuba, 
Porto Rico and all over the United States. Surely 
the great mission of Suffolk Law School has abun- 
dantly been made manifest and its future status ren- 
dered secure. 

However the founder of the school may have erred 
in judgment or discretion at times, and however, as 
author of this book, he may have offended through 
egotism or imperfect execution of his task, he begs the 
reader to remember the mission and not the man ; to 
remember also that Providence works its will through 
imperfect instruments, that men may recognize the 
Guiding Power that transcends the doer of the deed. 



9^3 

316 



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